A Walk in the Snow

I took a break from work this afternoon and went for a walk into downtown with my camera.

One of the great things about Waterbury is that the buses still run even when the weather and roads are a mess. One of the bad things is that most bus stops don't have any form of shelter.

The Waterbury Arts Magnet School main entrance, as viewed from the parking garage. In times past, the main entrance would have been located facing the street, but now, in the 21st century, there's a prevailing mentality of everyone being able to park as close to the front door as possible (no wonder so many people are overweight... nobody wants to walk more than two minutes at a time!). Okay, in fairness, it makes sense for the WAMS students to have a semi-private entrance.

Walnut Street. Not only can you see how messy the roads were today, but you can also see wobbly tire tracks from cars sliding up and down the hill. The car in the foreground smacked into the curb on the wrong side of the road a few seconds after I took the photo. Luckily for me, they got maybe 70 feet past me before impact. Over the course of my walk, I saw several cars slide into curbs as they tried to negotiate a turn in the road, even though they were all traveling at a snail's pace.

Wood Street. Most people went outside to shovel at least three times over the course of the day.

The Soldiers' Monument in front of the Green, with the Mattatuck Museum and YMCA in the background.

Poor Ben Franklin looks like he's freezing.

Christopher Columbus wears his snowy mantle a little better:

I can't do a photo album of Waterbury without the clock tower.

The eateries on Grand Street were all closed (except for Subway)....

...while the eateries on East Main Street, from the Golden Wok to City Hall Cafe, were pretty much all open. I'm just guessing, but I think the East Main Street restaurants (not including City Hall) rely on downtown residents for their business, while Grand Street seems to be favored more by office workers (I could be entirely wrong about this).

Looking towards St. Mary's Hospital and downtown from Walnut Street. Normally you can see much further into the distance. It seems like there is always a pedestrian crossing at this location, between the Walnut Street Market and High Street.

I saw a lot of family groups out for a walk. Mostly fathers and sons, so maybe it's a guy thing.

Exchange Place, full of pedestrians and cars.

Another shot of the Green:

To those of you who now live in warmer climates: aren't you glad you moved? 

To those of us still living here: I hope you love the snow as much as I do!