Winter Walking and Cycling

[the_councillor]

This argument isn't lost on me.  I suppose I disagree with the distinction between what is the "City's" and what is the "Resident's".  In my mind, we are one.  We're owned, controled, and voted in by the residents to be caretakers of our city, with a mission to make it the best we can.  I don't see parks and trails as "city" property, it's everyone's property, same as roads community centres, libraries, and yes sidewalks.

Yes, the sidewalk is on the boulevard, so it is actually also "city property" (or "everyone's property"), the same as roads, community centres and libraries. So the question is, why do we make the distinction and download the responsibility for clearing those to the people who live in the houses next to the sidewalks?

As jeffster pointed out, this is not the 50s any more. More people are working, there are more single-parent families and more older people. And our expectations for making the city accessible to everyone are also (I hope) higher than they would have been in the 50s.

In any case, I think everyone (?) can hopefully agree that the current bylaw/enforcement is not achieving its goals, so what next?

I don't agree (yet) that proactive bylaw is not achieving its goals.  There's only been like 3-4 significant snowfalls and all in the last 6-8 weeks.  Proactive bylaw inspection is about changing behaviours, and that takes time.  No one that understood the program expected clear sidewalks everywhere 6 weeks after beginning.  I personally think it will take another year to see reasonable compliance.  It may not work, we'll know better in May when the report comes back, but data has shown that those that get a warning, do indeed change.

I'm unsure what to say about the downloading/"not the 50's anymore" sentiment except to say the overwhelming majority of people that have contacted me on this do not want the city to do this work.  They have said they're out clearing their driveway anyway, and we can't even clear the roads well, cut park-grass often enough, cut tree-limbs over sidewalks, replace broken/heaved sidewalks quickly enough etc., why we would add a new service before spending on those?
 
Regardless, cities with municipally cleared sidewalks are not significantly better off.  This is the poor-value argument.  I wish everyone could see the sidewalks in London/Guelph etc. right now, I have... 5 days after the snow and many areas are just as bad as here.  This is the key point that keeps getting lost.  I want clear sidewalks, but I'm against paying millions for a city-wide service that also doesn't work!  There is no good solution yet but copying failed approaches elsewhere is worse than doing nothing.  Of course, doing nothing won't advance us either though so to your 'what next' question... I'm only one councillor but I think we need to do several things:

- Revise the impossible "bare concrete" expectation as mentioned.

- With this new expectation-- just one warning per lifetime before the city clears & fines.  (To expedite proactive bylaw behaviour-change.)

- Fine reduction when the city clears to cost recovery.  (Something reasonable like $50.)

- Explore different "clear by" timing.  (24hrs from cessation can permit long stretches while uncleared.)

- Expansion of city-clearing of key priority transit routes.  (Please note bus stops and Regional roads aren't under my jurisdiction.)

- Ensure a comprehensive assistance program for those unable.