Near brush with local celebrity

I always watch the 6 p.m. news. It's my thing.

If you've read any of my entries about running in winter, you also know ranting about snow covered sidewalks is also my thing.

Imagine my glee when my two "things" came together last night when the lead story on my local news was....wait for it, wait for it.....sidewalks in my city! Yes! Literally, my friends and I were just having a discussion about how I want run for city commission on a platform of keeping the sidewalks clear.

Anyway, over 60 percent of students in the school district here walk to school and the school district has been closed for an unprecedented three days because the sidewalks are not clear for students to safely navigate their way to school. Well, duh! I don't know where my city leaders have been....but sidewalks have not been clear all winter in many cases! Post Snowtorious B.I.G. incident this week, rather than say a few inches of lumpy snow blocking a sidewalk the snow is, in some cases, knee high and waist high. The only way some little elementary schooler is going to get through that is with a team of sled dogs or a snowmobile. Since I have never seen either of these things in my city, my guess is that the kiddies just aren't going to make it to school.

The story was great so I commented on the story online, but then remembered that generally, only total nut cases do that (for example, the story was asking city residents to clear their own sidewalks and these morons were commenting about how dare the local school system ask residents to come clear the sidewalks in front of the schools....uh, hello, that is not what anyone is asking!) so I sent the station an email of thanks.

In my email I also made two suggestions of what I would like to see in a follow up story: 1) the city needs to clear sidewalks on city owned property (like around parks) because they don't. There is a baseball field in my neighborhood and the city never clears that sidewalk; and 2) share how residents are supposed to file complaints with the city about people who don't clear their sidewalks (we have an ordinance - you have to clear your sidewalk within 24 hours of a snow storm) because the city took that option off their online complaint system.

Pretty cut and dry, right?

Thirty minutes later I received a call from a rookie reporter at the TV station. She told me she was doing a story on roads in the city that haven't been cleared yet and she was looking for suggestions of roads that have not been cleared. I told her that's nice but I don't know about any (and I am thinking wtf?). The exchange continued:

Reporter: "Well, I read your email."
Me: "Yes, it was in response to the story about sidewalks."
Reporter: "Right. Well, tonight my assignment is to do a story on streets that haven't been plowed."
Me: "Uh huh, I see, well my email was in response to Tony's story at 6 p.m. You know, the one about sidewalks."
Reporter: "Yes. Sidewalks. You said you run. So sidewalks are important to you?"
Me: "Yes, SIDEWALKS are important to me. That the SIDEWALKS are clear, yes. I was just writing to thank you guys for the story and make a couple of follow up suggestions."
Reporter: "OK, so where are the sidewalks not clear?"
Me: (Wondering, so does she think roads and sidewalks are interchangeable or is she changing her story assignment?) "Well, for example, I live on the Northwest Side - near Sullivan Field. The city never clears the sidewalks around Sullivan Field. I think the city needs to clear their own sidewalks too. Also, I want to see the city enforce the ordinance for residents and businesses too."
Reporter: "Yeah. So, can you give me an example of where the road isn't clear?"
Me: Total bewildered. Then I hear a click.
Reporter: "Please hang on for a second."
Tick tock...one second later....
Reporter: "Jen, it looks like my story assignment is changing. But thank you so much for emailing us, we really appreciate it. If I need to talk to someone about this later, may I call you?"
Me: "Umm...sure?"
Reporter: "Ok, thank you very much!"

The whole experience left me completely dumbfounded. Especially when, about an hour later, I was on the phone with a friend who had a very difficult day when the call waiting beeped. Sure enough, it was the TV station again. No, I didn't click over. I have no idea what the reporter would have been calling back about...but I am glad I had a great excuse not to answer!

Though, I must admit, it would have been awesome to get a jump on my bid for local elected office by launching my platform about sidewalks on the 11 p.m. news...even if it was during a story about roads.