This one goes out to my off-campus students, particularly those who live in houses along the roads of College and Beaver.

I’m fed up, and it’s time for a change.

As I’m sure many of us can agree, Pennsylvania snow is no joke, and our most recent 24-inch snowstorm is a pretty aggressive reminder of that. It’s the kind of snow that looks magical for exactly 22 minutes and then immediately becomes a logistical nightmare. My message is clear: Despite the snow, life must go on.

People still have to go to work. Others have to get to class (when it’s not cancelled). Some are heading to the gym. Some of us are just trying to get a coffee. Either way, we all have somewhere to be. This is where you all come in, my off-campus house renters.

When the sidewalks in State College don’t get shoveled, getting anywhere turns into a jungle gym/Mission Impossible-style operation, and what would usually be a simple 10-minute walk down College Ave begins to feel like an Outdoor Boys video. Left and right, you’re dodging knee-high snowbanks, tiptoeing through previously made tracks, and avoiding ice like it’s some sick real-life version of Crossy Road.

Plain and simple, it shouldn’t require this much athleticism to make it to your 9 a.m. class. Yet somehow, every block has that one house (or multiple). You know that one. While every other sidewalk seems clean, salted, and easily walkable, you hit an unsolved patch of house, and it can easily ruin your whole walk. No paths, no salt, not even an attempt to make accommodations for the public. It’s like the whole house collectively decided, “Yeah, let’s let nature handle this one; it should melt soon enough.”

While that may be a solution for some late March snow flurries, it cannot be an acceptable resolution for a torrential snowstorm in the middle of January. This inconsiderate approach to life leaves the rest of us with two choices. A: Trudge through the shin-deep snow, getting your pants, socks, and shoes all wet, or B: Walk in the street and hope we don’t get clipped by someone flying down College Ave.

All I’m asking for here is effort. Ten minutes with a shovel. Maybe throw down some salt if you’re feeling particularly patriotic. But most importantly, make a path wide enough for two humans to pass each other without one person having to scale a snowbank. Because sidewalks aren’t just decoration, or something to forget about. They’re a shared piece of the community YOU are responsible for.

We all use the sidewalks, your neighbors, your mail carriers, and the poor guy delivering for Amazon with ten boxes in his hands.

So please, for the sake of your ankles, your own dignity, and your community, clear your sidewalk. Be the house that we can appreciate walking past, not the one we mentally curse while attempting to hold our balance walking across a sheet ice.

Do better house dwellers.