As far as I’m aware, that should be outlined in your lease, unless your local regulations say otherwise.
We used to rent a house, and specifically contracted (in writing, in the lease) to get a monthly rent reduction in exchange for handling shoveling, mowing, and leaf removal. Eventually we said it wasn’t worth that, and on our next lease renewal, we gave up responsibility for those duties; it was then noted in the lease that the landlords were responsible for all of that, and they had a landscape/snow removal service handle it.
Currently we’re in a 3-flat, and our landlord’s service is a bit slow, but at least the lot gets plowed out quickly (which is easy - pickup truck with a blade pulls up and zip zip zip, it’s done).
Tell us, wise one. What’s a good reason for not shoveling one’s sidewalk? “I’m not required to by law!” isn’t a good reason, just so you know.
Because as an avid sidewalker user, the only reasons I can come up with are physical handicap and laziness. While the first is sad, it doesn’t prevent someone else from doing the job.
We live in a society. Sidewalks are a part of society. Just like roads. I pay my taxes so that I can walk safely to work every day. I shouldn’t have to worry about breaking my neck or getting hit by a car after being forced to walk in the street just because Mr. Lazy Bones can’t be arsed to do what he’s supposed to do as a responsible homeowner.
Not a bad idea - I usually keep an eye on my sidewalk and throw down some of thisif things are melting and running. Walking today was a bitch - the chinook we’re having had melted a lot of snow, and it had run down the sidewalks and re-frozen.
That’s my understanding, too - either the home-owner does it, or the renter does it, but someone has to do it, and they make arrangements as to who that should be.
It’s the Free Riders, I think - they like to have the comforts of society, but they don’t want to do their part to contribute to them.
Snow? What is this snow you speak of? I haven’t seen snow since I bought my gas monster snow blower.
I expect that this simple purchase will ward off any snowfall deeper than 2" for my location so that I can look at my never-used-too-much-money-snow-blower in April and think about what fun I would have had with the money had I not sunk it into this precious-garage-space-wasting contraption…
No, my REASON is that the town does do it for me. Why would I spend extra time doing something that isn’t my responsibility? Like I said, if you want to traipse around on the sidewalk before the plows come through (which is usually around 7 or 8 AM or so) then you better bring your snowshoes.
Exactly. I’ve lived in a city where shoveling wasn’t expected and it was a royal pain-in-the-ass to get around town without twisting an ankle.
Look, I love the winter and hope to always live somewhere where there is snow, but shovel the public thoroughfare if it’s your responsibility. Hell, I even get my neighbor’s walk if I’m out before him. It only takes me an extra four minutes or so, so why not?
Four minutes to do a whole sidewalk?? Clearly you do not live in an outer suburb, where the one acre minimum lot size translates into 60 feet or more of sidewalk per house.
No, I live in the city. A sidewalk is about 30’ x maybe 4-5’ wide. To do my sidewalk takes about 4-5 minutes of shoveling, unless there’s more than a couple inches of snow.
Yup. We get chinooks regularly in Calgary; the wind comes from the west (where we keep the Rockies), then the temperature warms up significantly in very little time and melts most of the snow.
Every town and state varies when it comes to sidewalk cleaning. In my town, you have 24 hours from the end of the snowfall to clear your sidewalk. For this weekend’s snow, it ended around 8:00 sunday morning and while most people had everything cleaned up that day, I waited until early Monday morning and it was clear by 7:00am, with an hour to spare.
There were lots of footprints from probably pissed off people, but it was done within the alloted time frame.
I guess I’ve never lived anyplace where people had trouble walking in snow, but then when I lived in the frozen north, I lived in rural areas. Not only no sidewalks, we usually had to plow the road too.
If you are having thawing and re-freezing, there is going to be melted snow from the lawns turning into ice on the sidewalks.
This is the first year my kid’s on a school bus. While it’s not a busy street, I still wasn’t comfortable with the fact that we had to walk on the street because so few people had shoveled, and a few that did did a horrible job. It stopped snowing yesterday morning and these same neighbors didn’t shovel during the day today, so unless they’re shoveling right now, 48 hours after the storm we still have to walk in the street.
It was only a few inches. It wasn’t a blizzard. It was in the forecast since last Tuesday or Wednesday, so it wasn’t a surprise. Two of the houses that didn’t shovel have several adults living in them.
Walking on packed snow is slippery, but walking through unpacked snow is not exactly a treat. If it’s deeper than an inch or two, it’s deeper than my boots and my feet get cold and wet. Plus it’s hard to walk through physically compared to just walking on pavement.
Where do people who have to shovel the sidewalk put the snow? They can’t put it in the street, (based on what people were saying upthread), so where does it go? If other snowy states are like Alaska if you try and put it in your yard, you’ve got Mount Everest in about two snowfalls. And how far do they have to shovel it? Along the whole block? Or just in front of their own house?
Does anyone have any idea what a four foot tall snow berm that’s been snowplowed up onto the sidewalk weighs or what the tensile strength is? It’s like a pile of concrete. It can’t be done with a snow shovel, not in any 4 minutes (as stated up thread…WTH?). And it sure as hell isn’t going to get done after someone gets home from work, we’re talking a several day long project here. In the meantime, while the person works at it, walkers are going to have to go around anyway.
Granted, my snow experiences consists only of Alaska (where every place I lived the city did snow removal, thank GOODNESS, or it just didn’t get done at all), Colorado is 'snow? what snow? it was here a minute ago, now it’s 70 degrees again (and don’t I LOVE that?!), and Seattle, where a 1/4 inch of snow brought the city to its knees, but like CO, it’s gone in a day or so.
You shovel or snowblow it into your yard and into the strip between the sidewalk and the street. Yes, it piles up sometimes. You’re typically responsible for the length of your property.
Everywhere I’ved lived that snows regularly (NJ and VA) specifies that sidewalks much be cleared. Not just the front of the house. All sidewalks adjoining the property. Which totally makes sense. What’s the point of clearing just the front, when pedestrians (including letter carriers, pizza delivery guys, police officers, little kids on their way to school) can theoretically come from all directions?
I don’t know if my locale will waive sidewalk clearance if the snow is particularly heavy. It would certainly make sense. However, we’re lucky if we get just a few inches over the course of a year. It’s overwhelming if you let it pile up over multiple storm events, but it’s not that hard to lick it down if you keep up with it routinely.
I once saw an old lady take a really hard fall while navigating an icy sidewalk on her way to a bus stop. She laughed it off, but it made my hip hurt looking at her limping along. Because I’m a klutz on a good day and I really need my constitutionals, I don’t appreciate snow and ice on the sidewalks. Not when they can be avoided with a little conscientiousness.
