Broad Ripple's stretch of the old canal freezes over most winters, a straight ribbon of ice running behind the shops and restaurants along the avenue, and the towpath beside it -- a summer favorite for runners and cyclists -- turns into one of the trickiest strips in the city to keep clear, packed dirt and gravel rather than pavement, with the canal's own cold radiating up from underneath. The Monon Trail crosses that same neighborhood on its old rail bed, and where the two paths meet near the avenue gets more foot traffic in a snowstorm than almost anywhere else on the north side, commuters and dog walkers alike picking their way through. Clearing that intersection well means going out earlier and coming back more often than a typical residential street would need. The shops along the avenue itself, tightly packed with narrow sidewalks out front, get done in the same early pass, salt down before the coffee crowd starts arriving. It's a small, busy corner of the city, more walked than driven, and the work there follows people's feet more than it follows any street grid.