I wonder what the summertime equivalent of the political snowplow is?

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The end of political snow plowing
By Emily Badger, January 6, 2015

Snow is political, and not just in Washington. New York Mayor John V. Lindsay never quite recovered from a blizzard in 1969 that has been a cautionary tale for city officials ever since. Chicagoans once dumped a mayor, Michael Bilandic, who was blamed for botching an epic snowstorm in 1979. And Washington's own Marion Barry was broadly heckled for enjoying a California Super Bowl while Washington sat snowed under in 1987.

Much more recently: An unexpected snowfall last winter paralyzed Atlanta, laying bare decades of racial politics behind how the region invests and plans for transportation. And new New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, long before his current trials, was accused in his first weeks in office last winter of withholding snow plows from the city's 1 percent.

The dynamics here are fraught all over. The most impatient, judgmental constituent is the guy who's waiting for his street to be cleared. A corollary: Elected officials wield no power stronger than a snow plow. And if we expect nothing else of them, it's to use that power responsibly, equitably, with no regard for wealth or influence (unless, of course, I am the one with wealth or influence!).

Lurking behind many of these political mishaps is the constant suspicion that cities plow with politics in mind — that poor neighborhoods get scant attention (unless you live in Bill de Blasio's New York), that City Hall's friends get extra care. Which brings us to the greatest advancement in municipal snow removal since, well, the snow plow itself: the online snow plow tracker.

Two winters ago, Chicago debuted a live site where you can watch the city's plows inch across town in real time, using automatic vehicle location technology embedded in each truck. New York City now has a tracker, too. The Virginia DOT has a similar one, and the District now has a site that's a little clunkier. Every city where snow falls needs one of these things.

These applications are government transparency you can actually use. If you can't see the snowplow on your street, a tracker may give you the comfort that one's at least nearby. These apps can also dispel the idea that all the plows in town are hanging out in the mayor's neighborhood — or, rather, they make it much harder for them to do so.

Technology can't remove all the politics from snowstorms, like dumb decisions mayors make to leave town, or years of disinvestment in public transit that makes it harder for people who can't drive to get around. But at least it can kill the most blatant offense: plowing snow as a political favor.
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