The People's Plow

About The People's Plow

At four in the morning, after a storm has come down off the Continental Divide and filled Boulder to the tops of the curbs, the town is completely silent and completely stuck. The People's Plow is out in that hour, pushing driveways open on the hillside streets where the grade turns snow into a real problem, shoveling walks down to bare concrete, and treating the steps and thresholds people will be standing on at seven. Front Range snow is a shapeshifter — dry and blowing one week, heavy as wet cement the next — so the plan changes with the storm, and the route often runs twice before daylight. Lots and building sidewalks get cleared as well, so the shops along the street can open on time. What the plow is really moving is a small piece of everyone's morning, handed back to them.