Walking in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

This isn't the conclusion I would have liked, but to be fair to staff, they have studied the issue, and their conclusion is that their changes had a positive impact last winter. I find the complaint numbers interesting.

Anecdotally, I do think that bylaw was better at responding to unsafe sidewalks last winter than in previous years. I say this as someone who occasionally complains about sidewalks which have not been cleared.

But, as the report notes, last winter was also very mild. If we get another harsh winter, who knows what the results will be.

As someone who walks _A LOT_ in the winter, about 99% of the time I go walking, I still encountered at least one sidewalk that was poorly cleared or entirely uncleared.

I'm a pretty able person, so I can deal, but, it's still an unacceptable situation.

The fact is, putting the onus on property owners simply doesn't work, complaints or not.  People just don't complain about it, except probably when their neighbour doesn't do it.  Frankly, I doubt there are many people in the city who do as I do and make a list of uncleared sidewalks everytime I walk somewhere.

This is incredibly frustrating.