Sidewalk

When we moved into our house 24 years ago, I complained to the city.  The public sidewalk in front of our house was sunken, broken and tilted.  Part of it was lower than the level of the street, and water ponded there all the time.  At that time I was replacing the sidewalk up to my front entrance, filling our front lawn with topsoil, and putting in new sod.

The city refused to adequately deal with the public sidewalk.  I was told that if I paid for it, they would replace it.  I was also given the option of circulating a petition through the neighborhood and if some significant portion of the residents were in favor, then the city would replace all of the sidewalks in the neighborhood.  But the city would only cover half the cost and the residents would have to cover the balance.  Finally they agreed to top the sidewalk with a layer of asphalt.  So reluctantly, I asked them to do that.

Sadly they only filled it up about half as much as was needed.  As a result, the puddle that accumulated as a result of rain or snow was now only 2 inches deep, rather than 4.  The asphalt was painted grey to match the concrete but over the next decade or so, most of it crumbled away, and the sidewalk got very rough and uneven.

In protest I've refused to shovel snow from this sidewalk for the past few years.  This past two years I started receiving notices and warnings from the city, threatening a fine.  So I started up calling the city again, demanding that the sidewalk be replaced.  I advised them that if they provided a sidewalk that was worthy of being shovelled, I would be happy to remove the snow.

Two years after that the city crews finally showed up and started working.  It was painful to watch as they had large crews of four to six workers, that seemed to be moving in slow motion.  But, finally after not being able to park in front of our house for about a month, the old sidewalk was removed and new concrete poured.  

The work was interrupted a little as the day after the crew set the forms we experienced a heavy thunderstorm and the excavation promptly filled with water.  For a short time, before the crews pumped it out, we had lakefront property.  Now we are just waiting for the backfill around the new sidewalk to be completed and the barricades removed.