wheelchair2 | Newton MA News and Politics BlogThese photos were taken a few days ago on Walnut St heading north towards Newtonville.  It was quite a while before that since we had the last real snow.

In my neighborhood I was slipping and sliding this morning over ice on a long stretch of sidewalk on Chestnut St that was never shoveled.

wheelchair1 | Newton MA News and Politics Blog Our new sidewalk shoveling ordinance was intended to prevent these sort of problems but it certainly hasn’t solved them.

A big part of the problem, particularly for wheelchairs, is that you need nearly 100% compliance to solve the problem.  If even 80% or 90% of the sidewalks are shoveled, the unshoveled sidewalks still push people out in the street.  Once on the street, people often just give up on the sidewalks altogether.

wheelchair0 | Newton MA News and Politics BlogI have noticed in general that more of the sidewalks in my neighborhood have been shoveled this year but that last 10% of shoveling laggards still cause significant problems.

What to do?  I don’t know