04-21-2018, 06:44 AM
(04-20-2018, 03:49 PM)Bob_McBob Wrote: I don't see how any bylaw option is realistically enforceable. Complaint-based bylaw enforcement works because most nuisance complaints aren't actually a big deal. Nobody is significantly impacted by their neighbour's lawn being an inch too long or having a car illegally parked in the street overnight. The WRPS handles after-hour noise complaints like loud parties. It's totally unrealistic to expect pedestrians to report dozens of sidewalk snow removal violations every snowfall, or for the current bylaw force to actually respond to them all.
That leaves regular patrolling of every street in the region, with bylaw officers issuing thousands of warnings and tickets. At that point it will almost certainly cost far more than simply having the cities remove the snow.
Unfortunately, sidewalks aren't considered a big deal by most people. Certainly not by the City.
I had a neighbour angrily tell me this winter that there are "some people" with "nothing better to do" than call in complaints. That's the mentality. And that of reddit comments and newspaper editorials, who claim the roads "aren't perfect" and "winter means snow," rarely having walked any distance in their own city to see how impassable the sidewalks can be.
On an aside, I believe the City may have cleared a few sidewalks in my neighbourhood yesterday. I noticed that two properties which habitually do not clear were given a treatment down to the concrete with a fair bit of salt.