Detroit still has its alleys, and in winter they are the first thing to disappear and the last thing to come back. J D's Landscaping & Snow Removal keeps to the night shift when a storm demands it — plowing driveways, opening walkways, shoveling out gates and steps, laying salt against the freeze that always follows a clearing sky. Headlights, exhaust hanging in the cold, the scrape of a blade two streets over: the sound of a city getting itself ready. By morning the routes are open, the trucks are quiet, and nobody has to think about any of it. That is the whole reason for doing it in the dark.