Ship and tug boat anchored on the sludged-up Hudson river yesterday. I suspected that these ice chunks were coming from the city dumping them into the river when I saw them. They looked too dirty to be anything else, but street plow. On WNYC, I heard today that this is the case. It may be worse environmentally than the melt that goes to the river through the sewers because the level of solid trash must be higher in these scrapings. They float back and forth with the tide like turds.

But I don’t know what else they could do with it, other than dump in the river. Otherwise we would be higher than the ankle-deep-in-sludge that we are right now. Sludge-time after a blizzard is the most difficult time for walking in the city. The greatest challenges come from the massive icy gray ponds of unknown depths that form at many corners. Jumping, and hoping not to land with an un-neighborly splash, is my usual strategy.

Luck is with you when some store owner, selfless neighbor, or super decides to take it upon themselves to keep the path to the street clear. Rubber waders, if I had them, would be ideal gear. I also advise hoods and rain clothing as fast cornering cars often splash-and-run, and parapets above regularly send gifts of unsavory slush.

Person-width paths are a challenge to civility that we most often manage with grace. Waiting while someone else walks is not easy for a New Yorker.

Despite all this, I enjoy walking the streets in this weather, for the playfulness it brings out in people. It’s like a high-strategy video game. Your goal: get home dry.

Filed under: New York City, Photos, Upper West Side , Ecology, Hudson River, Nature, Snow, Weather by gamma