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Somerville, Mass., Will Issue 'Scarlett Letters' for Unshoveled Sidewalks

The town hopes to shame residents into better behavior.

When Hester Prynne gave birth to a child out of wedlock in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter, she was forced to wear a glaring red ‘A’ across her chest, a sign of shame in her Puritan community that reminded people daily of her supposedly sinister ways.

 

Taking a page straight from that novel, penned in 1850, Somerville’s Board of Aldermen will do the same to residents who fail to shovel their sidewalks this winter.

At a meeting on December 11, board members unanimously voted in favor of updating the city’s current snow-removal laws by including a provision that would allow officials to brand miscreant landlords’ properties with visible “Scarlet Letters,” as first reported by the Somerville Journal, if they don’t clear public pathways in a timely fashion.

“The Inspectional Services Department will be hanging large, strikingly-colored door knockers on the properties of these offenders, which not only brings attention to the property owners, but make the neighbors aware of a citation that’s being served to such property,” said Alderman Mary Jo Rossetti during the meeting last week.

In an interview with Boston, Alderman Jack Connolly said the “Scarlet Letter approach” will let people walking by know, “oh good, that guy has a fine,” and they will realize the city “is going after them” and they are “being held accountable.”

 

Daniel Luzer is GOVERNING's news editor.
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