In the aftermath of major storms, snowy, icy sidewalks often prove a serious danger to pedestrians. The record 2,400 tickets Boston issued property owners for not shoveling sidewalks or for dumping snow into the street after the February blizzard should be an unfortunate reminder of owners’ responsibility to clear sidewalks near homes and businesses. The tickets may have stung a bit, but should be applauded as a necessary step toward improving public safety.
The tickets, issued for more than two weeks after the storm, also reflect a more responsive city government. Lodging a complaint is now much easier through a new 24-hour hotline and Citizen Connect, an online application. Collection of fines, mostly from $25 to $300, has become smarter, too, with unpaid penalties now attached to property owners’ tax bills. The revenue from the fines, totaling more than $200,000, can be used to prepare the city for future storms.
Comments
True people should clear walks for the public good, but one important detail is missing- the sidewalk owner is really the city. Adjacent properties do not own the sidewalk and their duty is imposed by city regulation offloading that responsibility. What if a sidewalk is cleared, then it gets icy and someone falls, causing injury. Who is responsible?
The city could save even more money by forcing residents to clear the streets in front of their houses in addition to the sidewalks. I can't believe no one has thought of doing this yet!
Don't give them ideas!
I used to live in Winchester and we got to take our trash and recyclables to the town dump, and we had to pay a fee for that privilege! Yet another great idea Boston could adopt.
I thought our Constiution abolished involuntary servitude. How is it then that the city can single out a single person to clear a strip of sidewalk?
One wonders how Mumbles' famed Hub of the Universe deals with a Boston burbal pheom that saves some property owners not-very-severe labor, but causes dogwalkers and other pedestrians into the mddle of the street. Said burbal phenom is the practie of a pathway of varied size along the sidewalk in front of a property, but at the property's borderline with the next lot, leaving a pile of snow impossible to navigate easily. It's as if one of the two property owners just up and floated away or got a terrible attack or laziness. Why one of the two doesn't break through the pile and make the pathway clear and navigable just boggles the mind. Does Mumbles' Athens of America fine such idiotic property owners for this sort of infarction?
Huh?
You mean the corners where the city plows leave several feet of packed snow that is impossible to move and you have nowhere to put it anyway? Or the entrance to the driveway that the second you finish shoveling for 2 hours a plow comes by and fills in? Betting you are a renter who owns multiple cars with no parking spaces and park in front of other people's houses and expect the homeowners to shovel out the entire sidewalk next to your car...