By Paul Bolster
It’s not just my imagination—there are many more neighbors walking, strolling, and admiring each other’s gardens. With school buildings closed, the traffic of neighborhood kids has exploded. Maybe it’s time to pay more attention to our sidewalks.
While we are sheltering in place, sidewalks provide a way to get out of the house. We take our exercise on them and they introduce us to new neighbors who are out working in their yards. They provide us a place from which to admire the creativity of the gardening all around us. We have beautiful neighborhoods which can only be fully appreciated by walking around. Here are some suggestions for ways to improve our sidewalks:
Clipping: The sidewalk right-of-way is 36 inches. I like walking side by side with my wife Riki and an overgrown sidewalk prevents that. With just a small amount of clipping, we can all keep our beautiful vegetation out of the right-of-way and get the job done. If it is more that you can handle, ask a neighbor to help. Ask me to help. Maybe even ask a neighbor if it is ok for you to clip back an offending hedge.
Advocacy: All of our streets should have at least one sidewalk that allows neighbors to connect to a destination important to then. Let the neighborhood leadership know that you think there should be a sidewalk on your street (SAND, EACA, GPNA, and NPU-W). Write to your city council member or state legislator. Politely fuss just a little.
Repairs: Some long stretches of sidewalks in our neighborhood are nearly impassable and dangerous to use. These will take a significant investment from the City of Atlanta. In some places, a little Sakrete will fill a dangerous hole. If it is a big hole or uneven sidewalk you can call 311 and put in a repair request to the Bureau of Public Works. Be patient because there is not a big budget for these repairs but the city does have liability for harm caused by the sidewalk. As a homeowner, you may also have some liability.
Solutions-Help Wanted: I need a bit of advice myself. I don’t know what’s right. One of my trees is turning up the sidewalk and though I have marked it with bright paint, it is possibly a hazard. I don’t want to cut down a beautiful water oak but I would have to cut its spreading roots to fix the sidewalk. I feel caught between the arborist and public works. In a mature neighborhood, I know I am not the only one with this problem. I saw a solution in a small town in South Georgia—building a gentle-sloping bridge to preserve huge, old oaks. Would the city let me build a bridge over my offending roots?
I would love to hear from you; please email me at bolsterp@bellsouth.net.
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