Dear George,
Over the last few weeks, I have seen more and more cellar doors left wide open for extended periods of time. Usually, they have an orange rubber cone in front of them as the only protection to prevent someone from falling into the cellar from the street. And sometimes (an ever increasing number of times) even a rubber cone isn’t there.
Prior to this, the only time I had seen one open was if someone was going up or down doing work. I could go a year without seeing even that. Now I see an open cellar door two, three, four, five times a day. And they are not always the same ones. Clearly, there has been some kind of change.
I find this terrifyingly dangerous, a catastrophe waiting to happen. I can see how someone not paying attention for a second could fall into one of these openings, or bump up against the door itself, which is dangerous enough—or trip over something, or slip on the ice, or simply not see it, or be jostled in the street by accident. Or some kids just dashing all over the place could easily fall into one. One cellar door that is often open is two doors down from a preschool center.
I don’t know why this has started to happen so often. But clearly something new and very dangerous is going on. Other people I have spoken to about this have also noticed.
Sincerely, Robert Roth
