Sidewalks Bring Communities Together

What is a Sidewalk:

"A sidewalk (chiefly North American English), pavement (British English, South African English and Philadelphia dialect), footpath (Australian English, Irish English, Indian English and New Zealand English), platform (chiefly Indian English) or footway (Engineering term) is a path for pedestrians that is situated alongside a road or a paved pathway (such as a concrete footpath through a park). A sidewalk may accommodate moderate changes in grade. However, "walkway" is a more complete term for support of walking, and includes stairs, ramps, paseos (passageways) and related off-street tools that provide for a developed pathway.

Sometimes, a sidewalk is next to its street or road with perhaps only a curb in between. Sometimes, there is an area called a parkway or tree lawn in between the sidewalk and the street." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidewalk)


Walk to meet your neighbors,you will save money and the environment.

Sidewalks

I have had several questions about sidewalk maintenance over the last year. I will address it to the best of my ability, from the information I have up to today.
This leads back to right-of-way, which I discussed in a similar forum last year. A property owner has the privilege to maintain and use right-of-in which their property connects. That is different from owning the right-of-way. Most improvements are prohibited in the area of right-of-way, due to the fact, that most of these areas are located/plotted for streets and alleys. Improvements and encroachment may cause potential safety problems, in which everyone would be potentially legally liable for damages.
Sidewalks are usually placed in the right-of-way. When this occurs, the property owner has the responsibility to maintain it. If an public access through a sidewalk or waterway is established then whether on private property or not, it must be maintained for safe use and function.
The specific question asked was “would the local government be willing to repair sidewalks and assess it to the property tax if the property owner did not have the money?’ It is the responsibility of the local government and community to have and maintain safe sidewalks. So you could say, that the local government has the power to do this if safety is a problem. At this point, I believe it would be reasonable if a person would like to proceed in this manner and the local government repair or add a sidewalk and assess it, it could be done. AT this point there is not funding or a requirement for the local government to do it without reimbursement from the property owner. Though there may be a time when sidewalks are required to be repaired, maintained, or reconstructed.
Sidewalks are important; they make neighborhoods more livable, cleaner, and safer. They are appealing to the eye, and finally they reduce traffic accidents, and even speed. “Sidewalk presence had a risk ratio of 0.118, which means that the likelihood of a road with a paved sidewalk being a crash site was 88.2 percent lower than a road without a sidewalk” .(Wikipedia.com)