If you walk in Halifax in winter, you’ve noticed the difference in sidewalk clearance on side streets compared to arteries. Until this winter, sidewalk snow-removal on side streets has been the responsibility of property owners. That’s why you’d find that the sidewalks in front of most houses were cleared reasonably well, and fairly quickly after a storm. Per HRM Bylaw S-300 Part 1 Section 4 (1), property owners were required to clear their sidewalks to bare pavement (I’ll get back to this in a moment) a width of three feet, or the full width of the sidewalk, whichever is less. The removal was required to be completed within 12 hours of the end of a snowfall, or six hours if the snowfall ended during the night. (Again, I’ll be right back to this.) Violators of the bylaw could be fined $227.41 (or more) and billed the cost of removal if they ignored notice (usually in the form of those bright yellow “important information” bags left on a door handle). I’ve emailed Bylaw Services many times, and seen results. (Listen, it’s better that than I put a chunk of ice through your front window when I slip, right?)
On the other hand, for some time peninsular sidewalks for which HRM takes responsibility (arteries such as Barrington, Oxford, Spring Garden and Quinpool; and bus routes) have been cleared by HRM. HRM crews do not clear snow like you and I do, with a shovel or a snowblower: they dispatch a guy with a Bobcat-style mini-tractor to plow the sidewalk. This results in about five centimetres of snow or slush left on the sidewalk, which, given the substantial variations in temperature we experience in Halifax, soon ends up as ice.
This is why I’ve often had to traverse a few hundred metres of rutted ice on Oxford St. while trying to arrive alive at Dalplex; scrambled along snowbanks, veered into the street and clung to telephone poles on the downhill stretch of South Street on the way to the markets on Saturday mornings. Remember “within 12 hours,” from the last paragraph? Ha! HRM gives itself a generous 36 hours to clear its sidewalks, and it has found it tremendously difficult to adhere to this standard in the past. I’ve emailed the mayor’s office (he might’ve had problems with an old lady’s estate, but slippery sidewalks pissed him off) when the sidewalk outside the old folks’ home at South and Queen was solid ice for an entire week.
It’s about to get much, much worse. Since councillor Linda Mosher (whom I must assume does not walk anywhere beyond her driveway) convinced council that HRM should be responsible for the removal of snow from many more kilometres of sidewalk than it has already proven itself incapable of handling, all of peninsular Halifax is going to be subject to the same level of service. And if you don’t like it, what should you do? Ah! Phone Bylaw Services and have them warn and fine—oh, shit, that’s not going to work, is it?
I understand the desire to have the job done by the municipality. It’s a small increase in tax for what should be (if it ever snows a reasonable amount here again) a significant service. The problem is that the service simply won’t be good. Once, I could plan a route (along streets that home- or business-owners had properly cleared) that I was fairly confident would get me safely most of the way to my destination. Now that will be impossible: because very few people are going to shovel when they’re paying someone else to do it. I love shovelling, but I’m sure as hell not going out there once now. It’s also no longer my responsibility to put down salt when it’s going to turn cold overnight: HRM will be along! In 36 hours. Maybe. You’d better hope.
I advocate a Twitter campaign (we’ll have to come up with a # for it) directed at @HFXgov: every time you see a bad job, take a picture with your phone and hit ’em. Complain to your councillor. Write the council at clerks@halifax.ca. Do it!
I’m not scared too easily. But I’m scared of having to walk on ice every day just to get to the gym, or to grab some groceries, or pick up my daughter at school. I shouldn’t have to be.
Andrew Murphy is a photographer and entrepreneur. He’s a-cookin’ somethin’ up.
This article appears in Nov 14-20, 2013.
I made these exact arguments to Jennifer Watts several months ago. She agreed with me then, and I believe she voted against the change. I am a senior pedestrian, and I live alone – so falling on ice could be devastating for me. And there are many more like me. If injuries result from this misguided bylaw, we should sue the HRM, the company doing the work, and the Councillors who voted in favour of it.
Janet Brush
PS A Twitter campaign is a great idea, but those of us without Twitter need an email campaign.
I agree completely with Andrew; this is a really bad idea and I predict it will result in much more dangerous sidewalk conditions this winter. We all know what happens when you don’t clear your walk until the next day. One thing Andrew doesn’t mention is property damage. Have a look at this video showing the damage caused by a sidewalk clearing Bobcat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCGi-6DW6hM…
I hope the city has put some money aside for re-sodding and replacement of walkway paving tiles. Thanks, Andrew, for going public on this one.
No doubt the space allocated for Andrew’s article was limited, so all issues could not be covered. However, it should be pointed out that after the Bobcats make a mess of the sidewalks, typically leaving 1 – 3 inches of snow behind, they then rectify the situation by spreading vast quantities of salt on the sidewalks. Salt is a pollutant, and costs money to mine, transport and then spread. So those horrible Bobcats will be making multiple passes by our homes, first to “clear” the snow, then to melt that which remains with salt. I walk extensively in peninsular Halifax. Never have the city-plowed sidewalks been cleared in a manner comparable to what the private citizens did. For three hundred years we cleared the sidewalks in front of our homes, and now “progress”! The knowledge based economy? Really! What a waste of resources and money!
While I don’t disagree with the article’s main points, I have to say that not all residential sidewalks are/were properly cleared by the owner. There were a lot of homes converted to apartments for students that were never shoveled in the past. And some homeowners shoveled, albeit just the shovel-width. So not everyone was great at shoveling, contrary to the read Andrew put out.
I lived in an area where the bobcat plows were used and I can’t say I liked them. At 4 am I’d hear the “thud-thud” noise of the plow hitting the expansion cracks over top the engine, a couple passes of scraping followed by the salt one an hour or two later. It rarely cleaned the sidewalk, my solution (and hopefully others will do that) was to go clear the rest of the snow/slush (and pushing it on the “city” grass). The only good part was it took care of the bulk of the weight, so cleaning it was a breeze. This could be viewed as good if you don’t want to over exert yourself just so the by-law officer doesn’t slap a fine on you for clearing a piece of property that is not yours (the sidewalk is the property of the city after all).
To date, they did a shitty job or clearing snow on many sidewalks, especially the narrower ones. If their plow couldn’t pass, no clearing or salt for you! How do we fine HRM?
I read this prescient article when it was published, yesterday Monday Dec 16 a day after the storm, just walking up the north side of Falkand St from Gottingen, I fell, a bad fall, rotator cuff injury, missed a day of work, need physio (to whom in HRM do I send the bill?)… the sidewalk was sheer ice, had not been salted nor sanded. After I got up (which took me a while, thanks so much to the guy in the green pick-up who beeped at me to hurry up). I am sorry, for the sidewalks to be in the shape they are in a major Canadian city is completely unacceptable. As I made my way hone, pedestrians were warning each other: “be careful, it’s sheer ice back there” qA heard several times.
Personally I would much rather put the responsibility of cleaning the sidewalks to the Municipality. The problem is HRM, the solution is to make sure whichever company is responsible does its job properly with the right equipment. Atleast here in the US there are ridiculous amount of law suits where innocent people are targeted because someone slipped on their sidewalk.