What not to do in Minneapolis: City-funded sidewalk plowing

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Minneapolis, it's time to put a stake in the heart of the push for city-funded plowing of the our sidewalks.

This campaign seeks to ask the city's taxpayers to fork over tens of millions of dollars to perform a job that most of them already do — clear their sidewalks — because some scofflaws don't.

Clearing a walk is a basic responsibility of being a property owner, just like cutting the grass. But advocacy group Our Streets, an organization that I've supported both financially and as a volunteer, wants everyone to pay because some property owners can't or won't do the job. That's wrongheaded.

It's wrongheaded because it penalizes financially those who already comply with the shoveling law. And it's wrongheaded because it will actually delay the clearing of many miles of sidewalks beyond the 24 hours in which they must now be cleared (four hours for businesses).

Rather than penalize the compliant for the sins of the scofflaws, the city needs to assist those who aren't physically able to clear their walks and those who can't afford to pay someone to do the job. Then crack down on repeat offenders.

I'm a 71-year-old runner who depends on cleared walks for exercise, while others need them to maneuver a wheelchair or a use a cane or to get to the bus.

Yet each winter the same property owners near me fail to clear their walks to full width and bare pavement as required by ordinance. Some run a snowblower over the walk but leave an inch of snow, which eventually compacts into ice. I've been battling for months a hamstring strain sustained on such a walk.

Yet the city fails at being proactive enough to inspect these repeat offenders without complaints. And despite repeated complaints, follow-up enforcement falls short. The same walks remain icy all winter. Tougher policies are needed. Unshoveled walks should count against a landlord's rental licensing record. Penalties against repeat offenders should increase.

For those who can't physically or financially get their walks cleared, maybe the city should bring back its pathbreaker program of decades past. It allowed youth groups to earn money by clearing uncleared walks. On our block, nearby homeowners take turns making sure the walk of a neighbor in his late 80s is cleared.

It seems wrongheaded to substitute a multiday city plowing regimen for the current 24-hour requirement. At least one suburb that clears its walks takes four days to complete the job.

Moreover, even a professional driver can find it difficult to find the edge of a sidewalk without tearing up adjacent turf. The accompanying photo shows the damage that resulted when the Park Board cleared a park near me. Do we want to risk that in our front yards?

The city already faces budget requests for higher taxes to repair the infrastructure it already has — for needs such as crumbling parkways and much-needed public housing renovation.

Let's focus spending on critical needs like those rather than assuming the cost of duties that are a basic responsibility of owning property.

Steve Brandt, a former Star Tribune reporter, is an elected member of the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation.