Winter comes to Springfield's North End by way of the water — a night of river fog, then four inches of it by morning. Ali Bro's LLC runs those close-set streets near Plainfield and the bridge approaches, where driveways sit short and shoulder to shoulder and every one has to be open before the first shift leaves. Plowing, walks taken down to the concrete, salt laid where the shade keeps ice stubborn: that is the work, and most of it happens in the dark. There is real pride in a block that wakes already cleared, the banks cut clean, nothing left to fight with the car door. Storm by storm or the whole cold stretch through, snow is the trade here.