Milwaukee Avenue cuts the Northwest Side on a diagonal, and in mid-December the snow banked along it picks up every color burning in the storefront windows. V&V Landscaping inc. is out in that weather, plowing driveways and lots around Portage Park and the blocks nearby, shoveling walks and salting the front steps. A clipper here rides in on a hard west wind, drops its few inches and keeps going, and the answer is to be out in it early rather than clever about it. There is something good about a street where every drive is open on a snowy morning. That is a neighborhood looking after itself, one property at a time.