James Danforth spent an hour trying to dig his car out of ice and snow on Corey Hill before finally giving up.
“Quite a storm we had,” Danforth said, leaning on a shovel. “The side streets are terrible.”
Danforth, 60, lent a hand to a neighbor whose snowblower broke. “Paul’s too old for shoveling,” he said. Danforth, a roofer, said he loves the work and had been helping neighbors shovel their driveways since before sunrise Tuesday.
“It’s good exercise,” he said.
Monday’s blizzard piled another 17 inches of snow on Brookline less than a month after a late January storm dropped nearly 2 feet. If the winter of 2025-26 feels particularly brutal, Brookline residents are taking it in stride – maybe even enjoying it.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a real winter,” said Elliot Shimer, a health care strategist who was waiting for the T in Coolidge Corner. “It’s actually kind of fun to have, like, a real snowfall.”
Daniela Santos and Daniel Lounsbury walked out of Trader Joe’s in Coolidge Corner Tuesday, groceries in hand and snow boots on, and headed to Lounsbury’s apartment in Brighton. They wanted to be prepared for the trek.
“[We] learned our lesson,” Lounsbury said, smiling. “[Santos] wore Uggs last time.”’
“It wasn’t fun,” said Santos, a Boston University student. “My Uggs are ruined.”
Lounsbury, a BU alum, said he and Santos had plans to sled in the “impressive” snowfall. He was also impressed by how well Brookline cleared the roads.
“The last storm, they didn’t do as well clearing up afterwards,” he said.
A few doors down, Stephen Chen and his wife, Christina, shoveled snow outside Flake Bakery, their Portuguese pastry shop, as well as neighboring storefronts.
“I’m just helping the neighbors shovel,” said Chen, wearing a Donald Duck apron and a short-sleeved shirt.
Chen called Monday’s blizzard “just another snow day.”
“I used to see this type of snow, I feel, almost every winter. Now you rarely see it,” Chen said. “It’s probably a shocker to most, but I’m just kind of just used to it. It’s nice to see.”
Susan Silveira moved from Brookline to Portland, Oregon, in late 2025. She flew back here for a doctor’s appointment Monday. With the blizzard, her appointment was rescheduled for Tuesday and then canceled altogether. She didn’t even mind.
“It wasn’t terrible, because I have friends here, and I really enjoyed seeing them,” Silveira said.
Even with her flights back to Portland delayed, Silveira said she holds no vendetta against the snow.
“In Portland, there’s no snow, so it’s actually kind of a pleasure for me to see the snow, because I’m accustomed [to it,]” Silveira said. “It’s been a pleasurable several days, even with this appointment cancellation.”
‘It is beautiful’
Corey Hill might not be the Tatra Mountains of his childhood in Poland, but Andrei Prey took his skis to the slopes there Tuesday.
“It is beautiful, eh?” he said, gesturing to the snow-laden trees around him. “Normally there’s no chance to ski because there’s no snow.”
He pulled down his sunglasses to return to his laps around Corey Hill Playground, where he was the sole visitor. “Profiter de la vie!” he said, as he skied away, French for “make the most of life.”
Across the street, kids were doing just that with their day off from school. One child tasted fistful after fistful of snow, while another amassed a pile of the stuff with a miniature red shovel. Others flew down Corey Hill on sleds, shrieking when they wiped out, and ran back up to repeat the experience.
High school math teacher Lauren Tharp gave her son’s sled a kick to send him down the hill, while her other son, 3-year-old Dillon, sat motionless on a reclining park chair, staring into space.
“Dillon doesn’t like the snow,” she said.
He’s not the only one, of course. Not everybody is a fan of this relentless winter.
Bill Cook, a retiree and part-time Brookline resident, lives on the South Shore most of the time, which is where he was headed after his trip to Trader Joe’s. He said the snow situation here is a lot better than what he’s dealing with on the shore.
“We’re buried down there,” Cook said.
However, he did have a comment about the snow management in Brookline.
“The streets are pretty sloppy in a lot of places,” Cook said. “I don’t want to seem cranky, but for the taxes you pay, they probably should do a better job clearing the streets.”
In an email to Town Meeting members and other Brookline officials, public works commissioner Erin Chute asked for patience as crews work to clear roads.
“While conditions are improving, recovery from a storm of this magnitude is a multi-day effort,” Chute wrote. “Operations will continue for several days as we work toward restoring normal conditions across the community.”
David Hill, a Brookline Police Department spokesperson, said there were no major incidents related to the blizzard as of Tuesday.
“A few vehicles stuck in the snow, some wires down calls, some road hazard calls, seven traffic crashes … and a bunch of cars in violation of the parking ban,” he wrote in an email to Brookline.News.
The snow-related delays on the MBTA have also been wearying for some.
Ian Lebovitz, who has worked at J.P. Licks in Coolidge Corner, said his commute from Somerville has become increasingly difficult.
“Now, it’s like an hour on the T,” Lebovitz said. “I get on the green line, ride it till Government Center, switch over to a different train, and then ride it another 30, 40 minutes… The worst part is just waiting for the train to show.”
Some people, of course, are simply tired of all the shoveling.
Ian Martz shoveled the snow from the top deck of his house Tuesday, showering the sidewalk below, after excavating his driveway and walkways.
“Fun times,” he said sarcastically.
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.