Once again, the City Council has decided to delay plans to fine homeowners who fail to clear their sidewalks of snow and ice within 30 hours of a storm, Jonathan Dame of Wicked Local reports.
However, commercial, nonprofit and large property owners could face fines for not clearing sidewalks of snow and ice within 12 hours.
It’s interesting that the city can fine institutions like BC, but can’t force them to pay their fair share of property taxes. In my opinion the city should be pressing this issue with all non tax paying institutions. Either pay your fair share of property taxes, or get billed in lieu of taxes for all city services. These institutions are using our roads, our below ground infrastructure, our emergency services, and they don’t pay a dime in taxes. I would like to see a mayoral candidate who tells these institutions… “The free ride is over!”
@Mike. Amen
Once again. it’s the city’s responsibility. The city owns the sidewalks. Buy some more sidewalk plows. Hire some contractors. Prioritize the routes. Share the cost across the city. Problem solved. Or keep taking about it for another 20 years. That’s also an option 🙂
Oh, and yes. Ditto to Mike’s comment.
Gotta run in a bit… have Chinese food to order before the rush!
You make it sound so easy, Charlie.There’s a finite amount of funding and a lot of priorities. Your priorities may not be mine, and multiply that by thousands of residents who have their own set of priorities.
We in Newton define the seasons by the issue of the moment: leaf blowers to overnight parking to shoveling sidewalks back to leaf blowers (did I miss a season?). At this particular time of year, with the overwhelming tragedies we see throughout the world, we should consider ourselves fortunate.
Many (not all) in Newton are fortunate. Also, sometimes things sound sound easy because they are. When something is truly a priority to the majority, funding can be found. To me, kids being able to walk safely to school seems like an awesome priority.
Meanwhile, it seems sad to me that anyone would define a season by “issues of the moment”. I certainly hope that’s not the case.
How one defines the seasons does, however, make for a wonderful philosophical question!
@Jane I agree with Charlie that a worthy priority of city government is keeping sidewalks and intersections clear for kids to safely walk to and from school. I often have to use the 311 system (which works well) to report walkways and bridges that are popular walking routes for schoolchildren. Maybe this year will be better.
Jess – Of course safe routes to schools should be a priority. I was responding to the following statement: “The city owns the sidewalks. Buy some more sidewalk plows. Hire some contractors. Prioritize the routes. Share the cost across the city. Problem solved.”
Another simple solution without a source to fund it.
Find a source, move dollars around, or justify creating one. We used to do it when I was a kid growing up here. It can be done. Safe roads and sidewalks are not political.
Yup. Used to do it when I was a kid too, but that was before Prop 2 1/2 required overrides to raise property taxes. I’m all for an override to pay for additional city services, but I’m clearly in the minority on that one.
Find a source? Charlie, what’s that all about? What department do you suggest we move dollars from?
I agree with Jane that it is a nice thought to have the city plow the sidewalks but you have to take the money from somewhere else to fund that and where exactly would that be from? Everything is about priorities and frankly though that is a nice idea I’m not sure I would put it high on my list. How about the able shoveling their own sidewalks? Those not able having resources such as linking high school students or other able bodied people helping them for free. I know some of this happens but putting real effort there. Maybe if fines were implemented they could fund coordinating this effort. I have a decent length sidewalk in front of my house that is also wide. I always remember when my kids were small and think of the moms with strollers who may limited to getting out and about when it snows so I shovel it the full width giving to try to give those people space to get around. Get people thinking about helping the larger community and helping each other.
I agree with Charlie. Clear sidewalks are a public safety issue, and accessibility is mandated by the ADA. If the property tax exempt institutions paid their fair share, sidewalk snow clearing would be fully funded. Until such time as that happens [#THE FREE RIDE IS OVER–2017], then the city has an obligation to provide safe passage to pedestrians. By the way, we’ve spent a lot of money making physical changes to intersections and crossing areas. If the city doesn’t have enough money to clear the snow from sidewalks, we should not have spent the money on all those expensive changes.
If the city is handed more money that isn’t targeted by a debt exclusion override, there’ll be plenty of departments hankering for it. To think that increasing PILOTS are a solution to sidewalk clearing is a pipe dream.
@Jane– If BC alone paid their fair share of property taxes, it would more than cover snow clearing for all of Newton’s sidewalks AND streets. Not sure how that concept qualifies as a “pipe dream.” To me it’s about social justice. These fat cat institutions are no different than large corporations that manipulate the tax code to pay nothing in income taxes, while individual taxpayers get screwed. That is no longer acceptable. Repeat after me…
THE FREE RIDE IS OVER!!!
From the Newton Assessor’s Records…
Basic Information
Property SBL 63009 0002
Address 140 COMMONWEALTH AVE
Tax Bill Number 2725472
Land Use * 942
Land Use Description * PRIVATE COLLEGE / UNIVERSITY
Lot Size 1,403,574 sq ft
Frontage 620 ft
Zoning ** SR1
Map ID 077SE
FY 2017 $412,100,800
* The land use and description listed here are for Assessing Department purposes based on historical records in the Assessing Department. For an official ruling on the legal use of the property pursuant to the state building code and/or Newton Zoning Ordinances, contact the Inspectional Services Department.
** For reference purposes only. Please check with Engineering Department for official zoning designation.
Ownership
Current Owners TRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE
C/O JOS M HERLIHY GENERAL COUNSEL
Mailing Address 90 COLLEGE RD
CHESTNUT HILL, MA 02467
@Mike: In my first two years as a student at Suffolk Law, I paid close attention to how both the school and student government spent its money. On the school side of things, I was specifically interested in learning why tuition had increased every single year for more than forty years without much return on value. On the student government side of things, I was interested in learning why the majority of our budget was being spent on social events and not in ways that could help increase the value of our degree.
Over time, I came to realize that the problem was simply a lack of leadership as there was no comprehensive plan to attack the issues and produce real results. Once this was clear to me, as a complete outsider with zero support, I decided to run for SBA president. The odds were against me as I had two supporters and my opponent, the status quo candidate, had hundreds. However, what I had on my side was a vision and a talent for delivering that vision. One person at a time, I did my best to articulate how and why the student body should use its platform to produce social change rather than promote social fun. To the best of my ability, I worked hard to earn votes on the promise that if I were elected, business as usual would end, and real results would follow. In unprecedented fashion, I ended up winning that election by less than 2%.
Long story short, the results we produced are unmatched. In fact, using about half the budget, we did more than multiple previous administrations combined. But more importantly, as the official voice of all Suffolk Law students, I worked diligently behind the scenes to do my part to get costs under control. There was a lot that went into this, and toward the end of my term – for the first time in more than four decades – my student body did not see an increase in tuition. (We were also the only law institution in Boston where that were the case.)
Verbatim, my experience at Suffolk Law is playing out here in Newton as we have status quo or establishment individuals saying, in this case about prioritizing snow removal, “it can’t be done.” What’s clear to me is that if Newton wants to produce meaningful results, we need to do different. For some reason you’re an ardent supporter of Greg for Mayor, but if you want to learn more about how I’d lead our City to reach the next level, I really do hope you reach out to me. If you get to know me a little bit, I’d bet you’ll agree that I’m the guy who will get BC and similar institutions to pay their fair share.
Finally, because I believe leaders ought to put their results in writing, if you’d like to read more about how I lead the SBA at Suffolk Law to produce the results we did, you can check out our first semester recap here: https://www.scribd.com/document/253688379/SBA-Newsletter-14-1-26-15.
@Tom– My objective is to call people’s attention to the fact that many hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property is going untaxed in Newton, and switching the financial burden onto the rest of us. This dynamic is not only grossly unfair, it also makes Newton less affordable at a time when “affordability” is a real issue. I’m going to ask every mayoral candidate whether they believe it’s fair that wealthy institutions pay nothing in property taxes. And I’ll ask them whether they are prepared to say to institutions like BC that “THE FREE RIDE IS OVER!” Thank you for joining me in that cause.
@Mike: I hear you. On numerous occasions, I’ve successfully battled educational institutions, which has taught me valuable lessons that I’d use as Mayor to bring about real progress. If I were Mayor, no sidewalk would any longer pose a safety threat to kids after snow storms, and I certainly wouldn’t use the generic argument that it’s a resource allocation issue. As I’m a believer in leadership by example, I’d be the first one out there shoveling the sidewalk myself to set a good example.
@Everyone: Happy New Year! I hope 2016 was your best yet and that 2017 is even better.
@Tom: Do you know how much it would cost to clear every sidewalk as you propose? If you don’t. how can you promise that? And where will the funds come from to accomplish this?