Tag: sidewalks

Councillor Korab Responds

Here’s another update on my earlier post, Letter to City Hall. Last week Councillor Jamie Korab, Lead for Public Works, answered one of my questions on CBC Radio. I asked how much had been added to sidewalk snowclearing since 2021 and when timelines would be shortened? Councillor Korab said that timelines have been changed from 4-7 days to within 5 days and distance cleared has gone up from 161 km to 175 km. He also sort of answered another question about whether the City is enforcing the bylaw against dumping snow on sidewalks cleared by the City. He said “fines vary.” One more thing he mentioned that I found interesting is that the City decides which sidewalks to clear “based on vehicle and pedestrian traffic.” I’m not sure how they know this. They may have some way of tracking vehicles but I’ve never seen any pedestrian counters in St. John’s. So I’m left with new questions: in what sense do fines vary and how are these decisions made? And how is pedestrian traffic measured?

Hitting the streets for sidewalks

Too small to clear the sidewalk?

(Alt text: Photo of a parked sidewalk plow)

This morning I got up early to go for a cold but sunny walk with CBC reporter Darrell Roberts to check out walking conditions three days after the latest storm. You can hear about what we saw here.

Darrell also did an excellent multi-platform report last week on sidewalks and safe routes to school. Thank you so much, Darrell and CBC, for your unwavering support on this fundamental human rights issue!

Something I may not have said as clearly as I would have liked in these interviews is this: Why do spokespeople for the City of St. John’s say over and over that it’s too challenging to provide safe routes for pedestrians when they would never say that for drivers? On Monday, Lynnann Winsor, deputy manager of public works, said that all the streets had been plowed at least once but sidewalks would have to wait as “a lot of sidewalk snow-clearing equipment is too small for the current amount of snow.” Last week, Councillor Jamie Korab, Lead for Public Works, said “hopefully in future years more money will be invested” in sidewalks and then went on to talk in some detail about what they do “to make sure all roads are clear” even though he had been explicitly asked about sidewalks.

I understand that conditions are a factor but that excuse is not used for leaving streets uncleared. That just never happens. I guess my real question is why are pedestrians considered expendable when conditions get challenging?