Via No Quarters we see another reason why living in Denver proper is not a pleasant experience.
"When 60-year-old Cynthia Roberson got a citation to for having snow on her sidewalk, she could not believe it.
And it's not because the disabled woman can’t physically move the frozen-over mess, but because she already paid someone to shovel her walkways.
'It was clean. It was done correctly,' Roberson said.
However, she said overnight Denver city plows scooped the snow back and buried her sidewalks. Now, the city has given her 24 hours to remove the snow or else she faces a fine of $150 for the first offense, $500 for the next one."
What would be sutiable in my view would be to shovel the snow from her sidewalk into a truck then deposit the snow on the sidewalk in front of Hickenlooper's house, then ticket him if it wasn't removed promptly.
"Community Planning and Development Official Julius Zsako told 9NEWS that the city has already issued more than 900 citations. He said so far almost everyone has been cooperative.
Zsako said that if the city has put snow back on the sidewalk, residents will be given extra time. However, he said, they will still have to remove it."
I can see the utility in requiring folks to clear the sidewalks in front of their houses of fallen snow. & fines are a reasonable method to ensure compliance. But the problems are the time limits & the origin of said snow. Plows have to put the snow back onto the sidewalks in order to clear the streets. So in a case where you shovel your sidewalk within 24 hours (as I believe is required) then that night a plow comes through & dumps snow back on your sidewalk you risk a fine if a cop happens to wander by. Add to that the difficulty faced by elderly &/or disabled folks. The proper solution (from where I sit) is to increase the time alloted for sidewalk clearing & further increase said time if the streets are plowed. & given citation happy cops a list of recently plowed streets (like they couldn't figure that out on their own) wouldn't hurt.
"Ann Williams of Denver Public Works says people can call 311 if they are suffering with disability to give their info to the city, and the city’s volunteer teams will clear snow off of their sidewalks and driveways.
Williams says the response may not be immediate, won’t happen within five hours, but it will happen.
Williams says the city will work with disabled Denver residents who were issued citations to avoid those fines."
Sure; they'll work with folks - after a new story is done on the unfairness of their situation.
& just the other day I was wondering how Denver was going to make up for the loss in revenue from traffic tickets over the last few weeks.
Posted by Publicola at January 22, 2007 04:09 PM | TrackBack