Sidewalks Still Covered After Winter Weather

It has been nearly a week since the winter storm came through our community dropping snow and ice across the area. But some residents are still struggling to get back into the day-to-day swing.

Crews with the state Department of Transportation and municipalities across our community have been working tirelessly to clear roadways in the aftermath of our latest bout with Old Man Winter.

Now residents are heading back to work and school. But that transition has been difficult for pedestrians and those using public transit that say the Town of Chapel Hill, in particular, has not done an adequate job clearing town-owned sidewalks and bus stops.

Geoff Green has been a Chapel Hill resident for the last seven-plus years and has a Master’s degree from UNC in city and regional planning.

Green says he is frustrated over town e-mails during the storm asking residents to avoid walking in the roadways, which had been plowed, and reminding residents it was their responsibility to clear the sidewalks on their property.

“It’s hard because the town claims that it can’t have an ordinance that fines anyone (for not clearing sidewalks in their property),” Green says, “but it’s even more difficult when the town itself doesn’t clear it’s own sidewalks.”

Green was one of several residents that took to social media to ask why the town wasn’t doing what it was asking of residents. Green was quick to thank the town for clearing certain areas, like the driveway entering Community Center Park on Estes Drive.

“The driveway was completely clear. There was plenty of parking spaces; all but two or so were free of snow,” Green says. “But the sidewalk out in front of Community Center Park was covered with snow and ice.

“And it was piled up, so it was clear that some of that snow and ice had been shoved from the driveway.”

Green says that his frustration comes from the contradiction in the town saying it values pedestrians and public transit but not maintaining those areas safely.

“It doesn’t appear that the town cares that much,” Green says. “And so it’s unclear why anyone else should care that much.”

Green isn’t the only resident upset over the condition of the sidewalks. Many chose to voice their grievances by e-mailing the Town Council and Mayor Pam Hemminger.

Travis Crayton is a graduate student at UNC studying city and regional planning and public administration and has been a Chapel Hill resident since 2009; Crayton is also an editor at the local blog Orange Politics.

“I wish I were surprised,” Crayton says. “But, having been here for a couple winters, it seems every year we continually have more and more winter weather and every year it seems like there’s not an adequate response or sort of any attention paid to sidewalks.”

Crayton says he lives along Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, uses public transit or walks to his destination regularly and leaves his vehicle behind. But he says that was made more difficult during the winter weather because town-owned sidewalks were not cleared.

“There was clearly no effort by the town to clear that at all,” Crayton says. “And I think when you do have the town not prioritizing sidewalks and taking the effort to clear them, it doesn’t signal to residents that this is important and that property owners and business owners should take responsibility for their sidewalks and clear it.”

Crayton says he was also disappointed with the response he got from public officials after the storm.

“Particularly council member Nancy Oates,” Crayton says, “who really didn’t seem to take this very seriously when she was engaging with me and Geoff (Green) and others on Twitter and just seemed to really dismiss the issue.”

Oates takes exception to the idea that she doesn’t take pedestrian safety seriously, citing her history living in the Midwest.

“I take icy sidewalks very seriously,” she says. “Because I know that in the winter weather people need to go out, or feel that they need to go out and that they can handle the ice. And then they go out and they find out they can’t, and they fall and break a hip.

“It can be a real serious problem.”

Oates points out that if residents want the town to prioritize clearing the sidewalks, budgeting will have to be reassessed to find the funding.

“Does that come from raising taxes? Does that come from taking the money from another program,” she asks. “Nobody is going to do this for free.”

Regardless of how it’s paid for, Green says a change in attitude toward clearing of sidewalks by the town and residents is needed for pedestrian safety.

“The approach seems to be, clear the road and the sidewalk and everything else will take care of themselves later,” Green says.

Green says he’d like to see the town work together with UNC and other large property owners to set the tone that clearing the sidewalks is a priority.

Oates says that the type of storm our area experienced this year, with more ice than snow, made clearing the debris more difficult. But she adds she expects the issue to be discussed during the Town Council’s planning retreat this weekend.

“Because of the ice storm, it really changed the conversation.”