The Winter of 2012 is almost history and there has been virtually no snow, no freezing cold for weeks at a time, no parked cars buried in the drifts nor are their mounds of trash buried in the ice that usually collects along the gutters and on the sidewalks.
All of this translates into a cleaner, neater North End as the winter comes to an end and spring is just around the corner.
City plans for spring street sweeping are already well underway.
And judging by everything we can see during a walk around the neighborhood, this year’s spring cleaning will be a walk in the park, so to speak, compared with spring cleaning one year ago.
The streets are absent of sand, salt residue and the veneer of frozen street trash that usually abounds this time of year.
All of this points to an easy spring cleaning and streets and sidewalks likely cleaner than they’ve been in years following the New England winter.
Lets thank global warming for the mild winter without snow.
It is hard to imagine that global warming can lead to cleaner streets and sidewalks in the North End – but it does.