Shovel Your Sidewalks

[iwasthere]

i say if you can go to florida every winter, you can afford to have your sidewalks free of snow.  what about common courtesy to your fellow streetwalkers and your nieghbors(hoods)?

[Rick Rowlands]

I hold that a sidewalk is part of the road.  Since the road is plowed by the city, then the sidewalks should also be cleared by the city.  The sidewalks are of no value to the property owner, and as two cents mentioned, is also a potential source of slip and fall liability. 


Placing the onus of sidewalk clearing on the property owner also implies that the owner must be tied to his or her property.  What if the owner is in Florida for the winter? Will he or she come home in the spring to find a list of sidewalk shoveling violations? 


Simply, it is easier for City Council to pass an ordinance assigning their maintenance responsibility upon property owners than it is for the city to actually live up to that responsibility.   

[iwasthere]

Everyone must have the opportunity to work in a safe area--  it was 50 degrees yesterday so it melted...

the ss streetwalkers should have a plaque dedicated to you at the blvd pk bw meeting.

[Rushblvd]

Everyone must have the opportunity to work in a safe area--  it was 50 degrees yesterday so it melted...

[iwasthere]

iwasthere--mine is cleared 

hurray for you and the ss street walkers are greatly indebtted to you.

[Rushblvd]

iwasthere--mine is cleared 

[iwasthere]

NO!

you might say no in hubbard but the city of ytown has an ordinance for snow removal. i let my ld ld know about this ordinance and the sidewalk is shoveled after a big snowstorm.   

[our2cents]

I can see this both ways.  Sure, maybe it's nice for the walkers and others that may be disabled and depend on the sidewalks. 
However, if you are going to shovel, you must ensure that there is absolutely no ice on the walk...unless you want a potential insurance claim or lawsuit for negligence in the way that you cleared the snow.  Sure, it's mother nature, but the argument would then be if you had not interfered with mother nature the ice would not have been exposed.  Then it's obviously not a weather claim, but is a negligence claim.

[Rick Rowlands]

NO!

[jay]

It's been about ten hours after the snowfall and very few people have shoveled their sidewalks in Youngstown. 

Please shovel your sidewalk and remove snow from fire hydrants.