When we get sidewalks it might be a good idea. Highland Resident.

Patch readers noted that the CITY did a poor job of clearing the snow NOT the residents. There are many Waltham residents who do not own a snow blower, which is what was needed for the past two snowfalls. Will residents have to purchase snowblowers to be on the ready for such snowfalls?
Further, there are many residents who are seniors and many with disabilities who can not shovel snow. Is the city ready for the liability from such an ordinance? For example, if someone is sent to the hospital or worse dies from shoveling, the city could be facing lawsuits.
I believe that Waltham residents pay enough in taxes and should have the streets and sidewalks cleared by the city. Let's not pass along the responsibility to residents young and old, healthy and ill, to do what the city should be doing.

Thank goodness! I still have to walk to and from the bus in the middle of the street every day because of the houses on Ash Street that have left parts of the sidewalk completely impassible. Yesterday I tried to stay on the sidewalk and fell climbing over a mound of icy snow blocking my path. I was wondering whether I sue the homeowner or the city for this.

this isnt a good idea. Several reasons:Its city property, not ours- does your home owners policy cover that? If a property owners does shovel and in our suit happy society, someone falls, home owner gets sued. What happens to property owners who can not shovel? Do they have the resources to hire INSURED snow shovelers with General Liabilty and Workers Comp and will those policys cover authroization of shoveling property the home owner does not own? Or do they use a 12 year old in the neighborhood and drag him or her into the suit mess? You are opening a huge can of worms for the residents here. There are side walk plows, City owned and sub contractor owned. This is Snow, from City streets, that City plows onto the sidewalk. It is forbidden for anyone to put THEIR snow onto city property- you are fined.The city should remove that as well. Its bad enough we have to continually dig out our walks and driveways over and over from the plowing- can you image the cost to the home owner to continually shovel the sidewalk?! Great concept, but a costly idea.

I wouldn't have a problem shoveling the sidewalk in front of my house, but if I am forced to do this, then the City should be forced to have the municipal lots cleared after a snowstorm. After every snow fall, the lot at the corner of Main and Church Streets is a disaster due to people parking there during a snowstorm.

It's just common sense to clear a sidewalk in front of your house, and a homeowner should want to do it, especially on the main roads. If you don't like walking in the street, then neither does the person who's in the street in front of your house. Consider it a civic duty, a small price to pay for being part of a society. An ordinance isn't needed to force the issue as long as people can learn to be responsible. The city should worry more about the sub-par job it did clearing the streets after the blizzard. We should demand better for what we pay for.

We generally do clear part of our sidewalk. However, once the plows came by and pushed in what we had already done, it was impossible to do again without some kind of heavy equipment. We live accross from the end of another street and they plow everything that is leftover from that street into one section of our sidewalk and hedges. There is usually a giant solid block of ice and snow on part of our sidewalk by the time the storm is over. How are we supposed to deal with that? We physically cannot remove it!

None of this has to happen. Our mayor needs to actually for the first time in 7 years fund a new Sidewalk plow for the street dept. The newest one is I believe 2006. The city used to run 6 of them and now they only have 4. 2 were scrapped. And 2 of the current one are having issues.

FUND NEW EQUIPMENT MAYOR!!!

Stop buying used trucks and rentals. There is plenty of money you just don't want to spend it.

To the comment above NO city hired contractor plows sidewalks. The mayor decided to scrap that idea years ago. If the city had the right equipment and the contractors had a few bobcats also this city would be better.

It took the city nearly 2 weeks to clear all the sidewalks because when they needed to be cleared by the right equipment (Trackless MV w/ snow Blower) only one actually worked during the Blizzard. It was way too much snow for the bobcats. I AM SICK OF THIS ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

People need to take some responsibility. It's impossible to walk around my Banks Square neighborhood, and people have had plenty of time (and warm weather) to clear the sidewalk in front of their property. And if it's a rental, the property owner should be responsible for this!
Have you seen the trash strewn across the uncleared sidewalks on upper Fiske and Francis Street? You shouldn't need an ordinance to want to take care of your neighborhood. The city FAILED, and so did the residents.

How many people does the state have incarcerated? How many of them are not violent and can work under supervision? How many times have you seen people in orange jumpsuits picking up trash on the highway medians and sides? Can't some of these people be deployed to help cities in times such as this? After all, we are paying to feed and house them.

No, this should not take effect. I am 70 and can barely shovel my steps. I simply stop my mail so noone has to walk to my house. I can't afford to hire someone either. The plows always pile the snow on my side of the street and the sidewalk would need a blower to move it. I oppose this idea. Do the streets and the walkways downtown; leave the other decision to the taxpayers.

Everyones pointing the finger at someone else. In every single article about the storm and every single comment written in those articles, not one person mentioned the 500 landscapers that work in this City. They dont even come out until the plow trucks are gone and dont hesitate to make a street that was completely clean into one that looks as if it wasnt touched. Pond St. has a bunch of apt. buildings with huge lots, the landscaper pushes the snow across the street onto the sidewalk behind the church and old age home. During the storm they did it so much they turned Pond St into one lane. The only thing that happens is they get a nasty letter. Thats just one place. Church St at the corner of School is a doctors office and a bunch of condos. They do the same thing. The City cant write tickets, and theres no law on the books for the Police to write one. That sidewalk snowblower was working around the clock with the one guy that can run it until he finally dropped and didnt get out of his bed for 2 days. Only to show up for work to find out that everything he did was plowed out all over again. At the end of every driveway in the City on both sides was a mountain of snow. Lake St. alone was done 5 separate times. Why should he have to keep going back and doing the work all over again. When the sidewalks are clear, maybe it should be up to the residents to keep it that way. Nothing else seems to be working. At least not to everyone's standards.

People dont seem to realize that theres all of 22 guys on the street dept that actually work snowstorms. They are doing what they should be doing. There are 5 large trucks, 3 superduty's that have a plow and, if were lucky, 4 pickups that work the storm. Then, after its over they can jump into a snowblower or bobcat, all 2 of the ones the City has that are currently working, and start doing sidewalks. Newton's ordinance has an exemption form for seniors and the disabled which the City takes care of those addresses. They also have a list of residents that will shovel for a fee and people/residents that will shovel for free. They thought this whole process out and came up with a very good solution. Thats how a City actually works. Together as a whole. Not by saying its not my job or why should I do it. And if your tax dollars are paying the City workers salaries then that means you must be a millionaire because if your paying 45 to 60 thousand a year in taxes then you dont have to leave your house in the winter anyways. The maid, butler, and gardener/landscaper are taking care of the sidewalk for you.

I would rather see our taxes take the slight raise to buy the city a few3 sidewalk plows as we used to have. We are not in the city where the frontage is a few feet. I do not own a snow blower and can shovel the walk and behind my car but I could never shovel what the street plows pile up in front of my wide lot. Three houses on my street have people away for the winter.

After watching people walking in the street on Newton St, High St, Prospect St days after the storm was over was embarrassing. If you are capable to shovel, take a little pride in your city and show some compassion for those who need to use our sidewalks. If you arent capable due to age or disability, find someone in your neighborhood who can do it for you. Its amazing how friendly some people are when we're faced heavy snow storms. No one should be forced to walk in the street on a busy road. And this goes for the city also. Newton St sidewalks by River St were never touched. The city needs a list of sidewalks they need to clear.

How am I going to ask my neighbors to clear their sidewalks when none of them speak English?

How am I going to ask my neighbors to clear their sidewalks when none of them speak English?

I agree with the Newton law that exempts elderly and handicapped persons. But there are a lot of people in this category in our city, and I don't think the city is prepared to clear these persons' sidwalks. In fact, the city did not clear the sidewalks in front of its own property on Trapleo Rd. until two weeks after the big storm, and until I complained. Thank you to George Darcy for taking care of it.

Most of you people who agree with shoveling the sidewalks probably don't pay taxes.
I don't own the sidewalk, the last time I looked it's city property. In a perfect world yes people should clear the walks and people should help each other out but it does not happen. Most people are out working and when they get home can barely clear their walk never mind sidewalks and yes it is the city's fault for the lousy job but it's every year. The plowers need a lesson in plowing!! Maybe we should have the DPW from Newton, Watertown or Belmont come and give lessons. Mr. Chaisson should be embarressed with this performance!!

Breaking News! Lets do a comparison. The City of Newton has 2 fully staffed DPW Yards and almost half a dozen satellite yards. Included are 98 full time employees and 81 pieces of equipment. Snow equipment! Thats not counting the machinery they have for other projects and seasons. ie: Bucket trucks for tree work, gradall's, mini excavators, that sort of stuff. They also hire "92" separate pieces of equipment specifically for snow. Backhoes, loaders, trucks w/plows, sanders. All that and they still have an ordinance to clear the sidewalk in front of the houses.