The Observation Deck

Question #1: Does it seem that the roads are still awfully messy given that it stopped snowing at about 7pm last night? Where are the plows?

Question #2: Does anyone know of any plans to enforce the sidewalk clearing ordinance? It's just absurd to me that so many people can't clear their sidewalks.

Question #2: Does anyone know of any plans to enforce the sidewalk clearing ordinance? It's just absurd to me that so many people can't clear their sidewalks.

What's even more absurd is the people that take the time to shovel their drives yet don't shovel their walks. Thanks we really appreciate all those people on Hilliard and Elmwood who don't shovel. Ughhhh!!!! I really hate to complain but these are the same people that have perfectly manicured yards and obviously have the ability to rake leaves yet can't shovel. Please hire my middle schooler, he'll gladly do it. Done ranting now, off to trudge through the unshoveled walks to get my kindergartner.

#1. Yes.

#2. No. But I wonder how many people just don't clear them because of liability. Believe it not, if you clear an area and somebody gets hurt, you're more liable for not clearing properly as opposed to not cleaing at all.

My sidewalk was one of the first things I cleared yesterday.

Bryan Schwegler wrote:My sidewalk was one of the first things I cleared yesterday.

Ditto, had my walk and drive shoveled and salted by 5:30PM yesterday.

However, I can understand if people were out until late yesterday and had to go to work early today... and could not get it clean this soon. I certainly don't want people waking me up with scraping shovels after 11:00PM.

the only thing worse than people that don't shovel their sidewalks are the ones who shovel the snow from their driveway ONTO their sidewalks.

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Dee Krupp wrote:#2. No. But I wonder how many people just don't clear them because of liability. Believe it not, if you clear an area and somebody gets hurt, you're more liable for not clearing properly as opposed to not cleaing at all.

What is the truth on this? I have heard this before but I have also heard that property owners are responsible for clearing the walks and could even get a ticket if they do not. I assume you can get sued either way...someone falls, they sue. One would think the attempt to clear a path would make this go better in court than lazily doing nothing. I would think that yes, in the middle of a storm you would be correct to wait but I was able to get mine done by 7PM last night and today only wind-blown dusting covered my work.

I think laziness is the key, period. I know because I am the King of Lazy (or at least a Duke) but when you have kids and know many walk to school, even we of Lazy royalty have to buck up.

If that is all we have to worry about this holiday season then the world is a much better place that I thought. Yes my sidewalk is shoveled and salted.

Dee Krupp wrote:#1. Yes.

#2. No. But I wonder how many people just don't clear them because of liability. Believe it not, if you clear an area and somebody gets hurt, you're more liable for not clearing properly as opposed to not cleaing at all.

I've heard this before and I think this has become a very convenient excuse.

Here's two relevant articles:

http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/faq14.html

http://www.clelaw.lib.oh.us/Public/Misc ... hovel.html

The bottom line seems to be that you shouldn't dump buckets of water on your sidewalk after you've cleared it.

Even if you were to get sued, most people have a home owner's insurance policy which will cover them for the suit. What's funny here is that nobody stops driving their car for fear of getting sued...they know that they have insurance and that the insurance company takes care of everything if they are in an accident...even if it's their fault. How much more likely are you to be sued for being at fault in a car accident than you are for someone slipping on the sidewalk?

Personally, I'll accept the extremely remote risk of a lawsuit and keep my sidewalks clear. We live in a walkable community and I'd like to do my part to keep it that way.

If most people shoveled a 12 foot band of street in front of their residences the plows could focus exclusively on the main roads.

Maybe if the founding fathers had cars and residential neighborhoods they would have put amendment 2.5 in the Constitution: the right to bear shovels. But they didn't have cars and residential neighborhoods. If it snowed too much mostly they just stayed at home. They could do this because there were no productivity metrics.

This discussion clearly shows that sidewalk snow removal continues to be a major concern for all of us.

There is a snow removal program available to the elderly of limited income through Lakewood's Office on Aging. People needing help in that regard need to give that office a call.

Still, to my mind, this is a municipal concern. Other communities plow their walks and we could do it as well.

I happen to be (hopefully) well enough to do my walks right now, but the day could come when I might not be able to.

I would hope that we would all just use common sense. When I went out, I did my walk and a neighbor's. Let's help each other as we are able to. It won't even be winter officially for a few days, and odds are, we'll be going through all this again shortly...

Gary Rice wrote:This discussion clearly shows that sidewalk snow removal continues to be a major concern for all of us.

Although I always try to clear my walkway asap and usually do, I would not label this topic as a 'major' concern for myself. Except for the few days where snow is extremely high I don't view this as a major problem. With the exception of the elderly who sometimes have issues walking in general, smaller amounts of snowfall covering sidewalks do not pose any threat...it is easy to traverse them without issue. Sure there can be special cases to this on small snowfall days, such as larger drifts in specific areas.

If you live on the path of my daughter's walk to school it is safe to say that I will be cleaning your walkway if it hasn't been done by the time I get home from work. Both good will and kind gesture, but honestly, for my daughter's sake.

Corey

I shoveled my sidewalk and my neighbors in both direction. I did this before I did my driveway. I am not an owner of a dog, but I hear salt hurts their feet. I try not to salt the sidewalk for this reason.