posted by Joe Polk at 12:14 AM /
No, this isn't a post about the Shel Silverstein book. This is about something that I've noticed around town when I've been taking long walks. The sidewalks in some neighborhoods just stop and then start up again a few houses away. The one in the picture in this post is on Lebanon Hills Drive.
Anyone have any idea why some of our sidewalks skip a few yards?
9 Comments:
Joe,
Don't you remember the sidewalk "diatribe" that John Fensler wrote about in his letter to the editor of "The Almanac"?
Ultimately, the reason that the sidewalks were not changed was a commission decision - and Dick Walker, the Ward 5 Commissioner whose campaign you managed, was one of the deciding "No" votes.
Was it right or wrong? Who knows...
The reason has to do with when a particular house or group of houses or entire street of houses were initially constructed and what zoning provisions were in effect regarding sidewalks (or not)at those particular moments in time.
The municipality has monkey'ed around with this recently by requiring sidewalk installations on some sections of some streets within a radius of some schools where sidewalks did not exist previously and legally, due to pressure from PTA's....at the property owners expense. The so-called justification for this has to do with a flawed study back in the 1990's that had been shelved.
This is all very interesting in a community where the school population has declined by 35%, the number of crossing guards has increased by 35% and over half of the kids are now driven to/from schools compared to the period where almost all children walked to/from elementary & jr. high schools in the *good old days*. Even teachers and staff walked to most schools. That is why lack of onsite parking spaces at 6 elementary and 1 middle schools is such a problem and a problem for students & staff at the high school. The immediate neighborhoods surrounding those schools suffer as a result because of overflow parking in front of private residences....many such streets have parking restrictions that also apply to but infringe upon those private property owners.
Bill Lewis
I was just talking to someone yesterday who researched communities with great schools across the country and decided to move to Mt. Lebanon in large part due to the character that sidewalks provide.
The only character that I see in our sidewalks (as a community) is that they are broken and in need of repair - just like our public school system.
Unfortunately, the sidewalks, like the school system, will never be repaired; but life will continue with the same characters in place.
I have been told exactly as Bill Lewis reports - the municipal regulations were changed. The explanation I got was that the requirement for sidewalks was lifted during the post WWII building boom to free up concrete for building construction.
Geoff Hurd
Mr. Kendrick, in other threads on this blog, you've called out others for griping and not offering real solutions. I'd ask you to go read through your last 15 comments and tell us how many solutions you've offered. Blah, blah, blah. Please , spare us your hypocrisy. Thanks.
Dave Franklin,
Perhaps you should read my comments more carefully or have someone read them to you. Apparently you have poor reading comprehension.
Spare us your insults and personally directed remarks, and send Mr. John Ewing my regards.
Thanks Geoff....I had forgotten exactly when the sidewalk requirements were relaxed or shelved. They may have extended into post WW II and the Korean Police Action (War) because our immediate neighborhood was developed during that time period, and we have no sidewalks.
I want to admit an erroneous statement I made in my previous comment. It seems the Muni does cover the cost of forced sidewalk installations where there had previously and legally been none.
I recall when the subject was being debated that two proposals were (a) costs to be charged to property owners, and (b) a 50/50 sharing in cost. A number of affected property owners then complained that sidewalk installations would (1)destroy any preexisting landscaping and/or retaining walls, (2)would require snow removal ($300 fine if not removed within 24 hours) and maintenance effort and $, (3)increase their liability insurance premiums, (4)and the system would be arbitrary and political because only one side of any designated streets or street sections would have sidewalks installed.
The then Commission went with an option (c) wherein the Muni. would pay the full cost of installation, and the property owners would have to swallow the cost of snow removal, maintenance and insurance costs. The Muni, in perpetuating this scheme, designates up to 850 lineal feet of added sidewalk each year for streets within a radius of some 500 feet from a school, budget permitting.
Bill Lewis
"Unfortunately, the sidewalks, like the school system, will never be repaired; but life will continue with the same characters in place."
My 8 year old read and re-read this to me, as you suggested, and neither of us could decipher your constructive solution. He concluded that it must be in code.
And I'll let Mr. Ewing respond as to the nature of our relationship. Suffice it to say, he's not much a fan of mine either.
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