Winter Walking and Cycling

[danbrotherston]

What a rediculous argument. It takes me less than 5 minutes on average to clear my sidewalk. 3.5 percent increase on my taxes would amount to $135 increase in my taxes.

It isn't ridiculous, clearing sidewalks by plow is incredibly efficient.  That's clear from the simple economics of it, a plow takes 3-5 seconds to clear the average sidewalk.

You're only one of many homeowners, and if you're only spending 5 minutes on your sidewalk, its either a tiny below average sidewalk, or you're doing a piss poor job.

The average homeowner, over a year, will more than one hour or clearing the sidewalk, meaning even at minimum wage, they're going to spend more than the 20-30 dollars it would cost.  That's not even counting the properties which have substantial sidewalks that could take property owners 10-15 minutes to clear per storm.

When I had my property, I cleared promptly and quickly, so it took me less time than it would to scrape the ice off later, I had a corner lot with substantial sidewalk, and I spent at least 15 minutes per time clearing and easily had to do that 15-20 times a year.

By the way, even if we take your time to clear as average, which it isn't, we still end up with homeowners spending 1.5-2.2 million dollars of their own labor on snow clearing, not even including the amount spent on commercial properties.

There is absolutely zero question here, if you include actual labor costs, a plow is OBVIOUSLY cheaper.  If you disagree, I assume you're also demanding the far cheaper solution of shoveling roads too right?

And to top it off, your math is wrong. I'm assuming you don't live in a million dollar house, so you don't spend 3857 on city taxes alone, you're including the regional tax, the city tax is only 1/3 of your bill, and if you I don't care, you can afford an extra 135 a year.