A jingle, to the tune of Silver Bells

City sidewalks, aging sidewalks, old, cracked … and crumbling

In fact, in some places–they’re missing

Who should pay? You should pay?

We don’t know–taxes grow

It should be part, of our transit

I wrote this over the holiday break as I was thinking about a recent topic on how we should pay for sidewalks–being discussed by the Raleigh Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC). I’m attending my first BPAC meeting tonight at the Raleigh Municipal Building, (Room 305) at 222 W. Hargett Street. The sidewalk assessment topic is on tonight’s agenda.

I’m attending because I want to learn more about the topic. I hear that the BPAC is looking at other models like how Charlotte incorporates paying for sidewalks as part of their transit funding.

From my experience in the Lineberry / Trailwood area, we’ve had a serious lack of sidewalk connectivity that we’ve been slowly improving over the years. We have some great infrastructure, we’ve just been missing key connections. I’ve personally worked on two sidewalk petitions and one road improvement project over the past 8 years. The two sidewalk projects were simply requesting that the city connect existing sidewalks and gathering signatures.

One project was only the length of one 1/4-acre lot over on Trailwood Hills Drive that connected two neighborhoods, Trailwood Drive and Camden Crossing. The other was on Sierra Drive and was a bigger project.

In both cases, I used the city of Raleigh’s petition process which involves an assessment to the property owners on both sides of the street, no matter which side the sidewalk is on. The assessment, as it currently stands, costs property owners $6 / linear foot for sidewalks. There are options for the property owner to pay this over a 10-year period.

If I remember correctly, the city of Raleigh also has a sidewalk policy where, at the cities expense, they will repair a sidewalk damaged by tree roots within 24-hours. They will not, however, repair a sidewalk that is crumbling or aged. This becomes the responsibility of the property owner.

In my mind, a damaged sidewalk is a damaged sidewalk–whether it’s because of a tree root or age. Both pose the same liability to pedestrians using the sidewalk. In fact, on a recent trip to Orlando, FL, I rolled my ankle on a damaged sidewalk while running.

I think the question being proposed about Raleigh’s future sidewalk policy isn’t around if the city should own and repair sidewalks, basically incorporating sidewalks as part of the cities transportation network. The question is how the city should pay for new sidewalks, repair existing sidewalks, and replace aging sidewalks. How do we fund a sidewalk policy that is more comprehensive than it is today?

A few questions for you to consider

I have a friend who lives over on Merrie Road off of Avent Ferry. There is a sidewalk that extends from Merwin Road and stops just a few houses down from his. My assumption is that the sidewalk stops at some required radius from AB Combs Elementary School. Why doesn’t this sidewalk extend to Avent Ferry Road?

Boylan Heights is one of our historic neighborhoods in south west Raleigh. Their sidewalk network is aging in need of an upgrade. How do repair and/or replace and entire neighborhood’s sidewalk network?

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