Walking in Waterloo Region

[BuildingScout]

It should be unacceptable. It's worth telling the municipal government that we don't accept it.

But the obvious solution is for the city to clear the sidewalks using a bobcat. I lived in one such city and it is rather unexpensive. Kitchener and Waterloo have been talking about it for ages rather than simply just doing it.

[MidTowner]

I agree with you utterly; I've experienced this, too, as I mentioned, and it's much more efficient.

Write your councillor about it. First thing I expect they'll ask is whether the current policy is having a big impact on people. Many, many complaints about uncleared sidewalks would be a big part of the answer.

[Pheidippides]

The cities have made a bit easier to report a problem.

You can use the PingStreet app to report a problem, send a picture, and GPS coordinates:
http://www.kitchener.ca/en/insidecityhal...mid_=91049
http://www.waterloo.ca/en/eservices/pingstreet.asp
http://www.cambridge.ca/news.php?nid=504

[plam]

The cities have made a bit easier to report a problem.

You can use the PingStreet app to report a problem, send a picture, and GPS coordinates:
http://www.kitchener.ca/en/insidecityhal...mid_=91049
http://www.waterloo.ca/en/eservices/pingstreet.asp
http://www.cambridge.ca/news.php?nid=504

Incidentally, I've used PingStreet in Waterloo to report a persistent puddle/stagnant water (the one on Iron Horse near 155 Park) and got a response from a city staff person. I'm not sure they ever actually fixed the problem.

[Canard]

Last winter, I generated dozens of complaints about uncleared sidewalks. I might be conservative in my estimate. It takes a moment each; no big deal for me. What you say is important: even if forty-nine out of fifty property owners clear their sidewalks, that fiftieth person's laziness or lack of planning prevents someone from using that route, and so negates the efforts of all of his neighbours.

It should be unacceptable. It's worth telling the municipal government that we don't accept it.

Are you a property owner who has a sidewalk to shovel?

[mpd618]

Last winter, I generated dozens of complaints about uncleared sidewalks. I might be conservative in my estimate. It takes a moment each; no big deal for me. What you say is important: even if forty-nine out of fifty property owners clear their sidewalks, that fiftieth person's laziness or lack of planning prevents someone from using that route, and so negates the efforts of all of his neighbours.

It should be unacceptable. It's worth telling the municipal government that we don't accept it.

Are you a property owner who has a sidewalk to shovel?

I am. The state of the sidewalks in the winter here is atrocious. Some streets are better than others, but at at the end of the day you cannot count on the sidewalks to be generally passable like you can with the roads. And that comes down to the choices our municipalities have made about what is a real priority and what can be left to individual property owners and enforced on complaint (but only N days after a snowfall).

That has very little to do with whether I have a sidewalk to shovel. Though I wouldn't at all mind paying a trivial amount of money for the city to shovel my sidewalk with its huge economy of scale.

[ookpik]

The state of the sidewalks in the winter here is atrocious. Some streets are better than others, but at at the end of the day you cannot count on the sidewalks to be generally passable like you can with the roads. And that comes down to the choices our municipalities have made about what is a real priority and what can be left to individual property owners and enforced on complaint (but only N days after a snowfall).

+1

Our politicians (I won't name names now that she's gone) devote a lot of hot air to telling us how much they want to make their cities more walkable/cyclable, more senior friendly, etc. But they can't get even the sidewalks on their own property to be cleared of snow in reasonable time. One example is the sidewalk on Caroline in front of the municipal parking lot at Alexandra. Too bad they don't apply that hot air directly to the snow. That would be far more effective.

[timio]

Incidentally, I've used PingStreet in Waterloo to report a persistent puddle/stagnant water (the one on Iron Horse near 155 Park) and got a response from a city staff person. I'm not sure they ever actually fixed the problem.

Still there as of 2 weeks ago.  I'm curious if they're just going to ignore it because it will disappear when 155 Caroline is built and the trail is re-routed.

[Canard]

Are you a property owner who has a sidewalk to shovel?

I am.

My question was directed at MidTowner, who indicated they'd called in "dozens of complaints".  I was more curious about how perfectly their sidewalk was manicured, then.

I try my best to shovel the sidewalk in front of my house - but the thought of someone driving around the Region for the sole purpose of calling by-law for a light dusting of snow on someone's sidewalk because they're out of town for the evening makes my blood boil.

[schooner77]

In regards to the puddling on Caroline, where 155 is to be built, that won't be happening for quite some time. It is a hazard. Keep complaining.

[goggolor]

I am.

My question was directed at MidTowner, who indicated they'd called in "dozens of complaints".  I was more curious about how perfectly their sidewalk was manicured, then.

I try my best to shovel the sidewalk in front of my house - but the thought of someone driving around the Region for the sole purpose of calling by-law for a light dusting of snow on someone's sidewalk because they're out of town for the evening makes my blood boil.

It's not even possible to call by-law for a 'light dusting of snow' that happened in an evening - by-law won't take your complaint until after a 24 hour period where there has been absolutely no snowfall in the Kitchener region. I tried to call a few times last year for houses that had NEVER shovelled, where the sidewalk was a bumpy mass of ice, but was rebuffed because apparently a few snowflakes had recently fallen somewhere in the region (but not on my street).

And you don't need to "drive around" looking for unshovelled sidewalks - there are lots of houses between my house and Uptown that are almost never cleared. It seems like the richer the house, the less likely they are to maintain their sidewalks - the big mansions in Mary/Allen are the worst.

By the way, I'm a homeowner, and I shovel (but I would much rather pay a slightly higher tax bill in exchange for not having to do so).

[mpd618]

I try my best to shovel the sidewalk in front of my house - but the thought of someone driving around the Region for the sole purpose of calling by-law for a light dusting of snow on someone's sidewalk because they're out of town for the evening makes my blood boil.

Finding property owners who pretty much just don't shovel isn't that hard in a lot of places. What you described is not what anyone is talking about here.

[MidTowner]

My question was directed at MidTowner, who indicated they'd called in "dozens of complaints".  I was more curious about how perfectly their sidewalk was manicured, then.
I try my best to shovel the sidewalk in front of my house - but the thought of someone driving around the Region for the sole purpose of calling by-law for a light dusting of snow on someone's sidewalk because they're out of town for the evening makes my blood boil.

Oh, I see: you were asking because, if I did not have a sidewalk to shovel, I would have no right to criticize the poor clearance by others. Well, I am, in fact, a property owner with a sidewalk to shovel. I don't "manicure" my sidewalk: I keep it clear it so that others can pass. That's my responsibility.

I don't "drive around" for the "sole purpose" of anything. I walk a number of places. When I note that a property owner has consistently failed to clear their sidewalk such that impedes my ability to get where I need to go, I take the time out of my day to inform the municipality so that they can let that property owner know.

[clasher]

You can see how seriously the City of Kitchener takes walking downtown; just try walking from the bus terminal on Ontario up to the by-law offices on Duke Street, whoever plows the parking lot across from the Adventurer's guild blocked the sidewalk with a huge snow pile and no one gives two shits. I can't even walk from Victoria Park to Sobeys on Highland because the city can't be arsed to plow the newly paved walking trails it installed along the creek. Good luck trying to get a bundle buggy full groceries or a stroller through the hard-packed snow where dozens of people are walking every day.

[mpd618]

I can't even walk from Victoria Park to Sobeys on Highland because the city can't be arsed to plow the newly paved walking trails it installed along the creek. Good luck trying to get a bundle buggy full groceries or a stroller through the hard-packed snow where dozens of people are walking every day.

This path is explicitly not maintained in the winter. I agree with you that it ought to be.