I'll be moving to the Cleveland area soon, and am thinking about places on the West side.  Probably Ohio City.

 

I realize that this side of town get far less snow than the East side, BUT - how are all of those alleyways cleared of snow?  From what I saw, most houses with garages had the garages on the back side of the lot - with entrances via brick paved alleys.

 

Quite cool, but I'm wondering how that works when it snows.

 

-g

Interesting thread. I was wondering why someone was posting about snow removal when it's 90 degrees out!

 

Welcome to the board. Seldom is there enough snow that it blocks access through alleys. It will usually take more than a foot of snow to do that, and in a normal winter you "might" get one storm like that. They might get icy from lack of plowing and the snow getting packed down, however. Buy some of those de-icing pellets. They usually work pretty well.

 

The only other things that I can think of that might block access to the back alleys are city plows on main streets pushing berms of snow in the way of the alley entrances. Again, that takes a fair amount of snow to completely block access, but less than the foot of snowfall noted earlier (maybe 6-8 inches or more plowed into berms). Snowfalls of that size may happen as many as a half-dozen times in a normal winter -- though you'll discover there's no such thing as a normal winter around. One winter you'll never see that much snow. Other winters you may see a dozen snowfalls of six inches or more.

 

You may have to park on the street, or keep a snow shovel in the trunk of your car just in case you come home to find the alley blocked by snow pushed up from the plows.

 

Can't believe I'm talking about this stuff when it's still in the 80s at midnight!

 

Anyway, welcome to the forum and feel free to post more questions -- like how does one stay cool in Cleveland on those hazy, hot summer nights in the city!

 

 

I live in the OC and my garage opens up to the alley. The city does plow it, but they only do so after plowing the main streets. It was difficult getting out on Valentines Day after we got the 2 feet of snow dumped on us, but a storm like that only happens every 3-4 of years at the most.

 

I love having the alley though. If I had a long strip of concrete (driveway) taking up so much space that I had to shovel all the time, it would not be fun.

^I live off an alley in Ohio City as well, the only problems we had were the two really big snow storms last year.  We had to shovel our way out of the alley (a few neighbors helped in doing this).

^I live off an alley in Ohio City as well, the only problems we had were the two really big snow storms last year.  We had to shovel our way out of the alley (a few neighbors helped in doing this).

I live in the OC and my garage opens up to the alley. The city does plow it, but they only do so after plowing the main streets. It was difficult getting out on Valentines Day after we got the 2 feet of snow dumped on us, but a storm like that only happens every 3-4 of years at the most.

 

I love having the alley though. If I had a long strip of concrete (driveway) taking up so much space that I had to shovel all the time, it would not be fun.

The above is why I live in a condo!  :-P  It snows....someone else shovels, throws out salt and makes sure the walks are clear!