I second Colleen’s comment about grass sidewalks on the other thread! I don’t see why they should be exempted from the snow-shovelling ordinance. I’ve been looking for time to write about this newly-sodded sidewalk on Murray Road near me. Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s the same teardown property pictured here.
This was not always a grass sidewalk — it used to be like a section of my own sidewalk, which I would describe as compacted vestigial gravel. The teardown is gone, the new house is mostly done except for interior work, and a landscaping company re-sodded everything, including putting sod over what used to be a perfectly walkable sidewalk. It will still be walkable three seasons, but less stroller-friendly than the compacted gravel, and it remains to be seen whether anyone will voluntarily shovel it.
I don’t see why either grass or gravel sidewalks should be exempt from the shoveling ordinance, since people still have to walk on them. For example, Murray Road seems to be a big walking route for people from the Auburndale Ave area to get to the West Newton commuter rail station.
I’m also surprised the developer was allowed to sod over what was a gravel sidewalk, thus making it look like pedestrians don’t belong there. I wouldn’t go as far as saying they should put in a concrete sidewalk, since that would probably kill that rather decent looking street tree by cutting its roots. But they could have just sodded a new berm strip. But then it wouldn’t have looked so much like Weston.
I have a grass/dirt sidewalk and when I’m no injured I remove the snow. On my street, Chestnut, one side it pretty much solid sidewalk and my side is different from house to house.
Grass sidewalks are basically inaccessible to the handicapped. It is very difficult to maintain equilibrium, if you are walking with a cane, a walker, crutches, braces, etc. If you need to mobilize your wheelchair yourself, grass is a major problem. Let’s make our neighborhoods inclusive.
When I was on that whole snow ordinance task force, I had suggested that we review accessibility of sidewalks as a whole city before we slap down a snow ordinance that seems haphazard at best when we don’t have a policy that properly governs the other 9-10 months that we DON’T have snow.
I also believed that a snow ordinance without consideration for these “staccato streets” was going to hurt us in the long run because rather than giving people an incentive to PAVE their sidewalks, it was going to motivate people to reduce them to gravel or, as this case shows, sod right over them … which moves us in the wrong direction.