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Snowy sidewalks can be unsafe for people with disabilities. Who should clear them?

Observer-Dispatch - 12/28/2021

A wintry snow storm can be a hindrance to anyone's day, with sidewalks to shovel and cars to brush off.

While a few inches of snow may be a minor annoyance to some, it can be a major challenge to people with disabilities.

"I would say an inch of snow to you is like a foot to me or somebody with a disability, whether they use crutches, canes, wheelchair or whatever," said Danny McLain, accessibility consultant with the Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL). "It's not only keeping people from getting out and doing their normal stuff, but it's also a hindrance in an emergency situation."

Utica has a large and diverse population of seniors and those living with varying types of disabilities, said Georgianna Sanges, marketing and development specialist at RCIL. It's a population that faces challenges when sidewalks and streets aren't cleared in the winter.

"Any type of ice and snow left on the sidewalks really causes a safety concern," Sanges said.

It doesn't take much winter precipitation to leave a person with disabilities in a challenging spot.

McLain, who uses a wheelchair, said he got stuck in 3 inches of snow on his porch in a storm earlier this year.

"What most people take for granted and just walk over, we can't," he said.

Utica property owners are responsible for clearing their own sidewalks. If an owner is delinquent, the city has a few possible remedies.

The City of Utica's codes department can knock on the property owner's door and speak with them about snow-covered sidewalks, issue warnings and warning letters, or eventually issue tickets with fines. Even after yellow warning tags and tickets are issued, some property owners don't comply, said Marques Phillips, codes administrator.

"A lot of times the ticket gets to court, the snow is either melted or they got it cleared off and the judge is lenient," Phillips said. "We have some vacant properties that, no matter what we do, will never get shoveled. The people don't show up to court."

While the city monitors residential streets for sidewalk snow clearance, it relies on complaints from the public when dealing with business parking lots, Phillips said.

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Unlike overgrown weeds or trash, the city doesn't have an abatement process for snow, Phillips said. Having city employees shovel or use a snowblower on sidewalks creates liability concerns, he said.

"It's a dangerous situation to have city workers there throwing ice and stuff around on private property, because your snow pile may damage somebody's fence," Phillips said. "Somebody might slip on the area that you plowed and you're liable for it."

In Syracuse, the city government will contract to remove snow from approximately 100 miles of sidewalk this winter. The city considers traffic flow and pedestrian activity to determine the network of streets in the program, which are only cleared during storms with more than 3 inches of snow, a statement from Mayor Ben Walsh said.

Despite the program, property owners are still responsible for clearing snow from their sidewalks.

In Utica, the liability concerns have outweighed any plans for the city to clear sidewalks.

"It's a hard issue and it's something we work constantly on," Phillips said. "And unfortunately it's one of the toughest ones to get results on."

A similar program to the one in Syracuse could make Utica's streets more accessible, Sanges said.

"There are vacant store lots and business lots that are unoccupied right now and who's clearing those sidewalks?" she said. "A lot of times nobody."

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Even streets with accessibility devices like curb cuts can be dangerous to cross if there's snow and ice in and around them, McLain said.

"It's those imperfections in the slope and the terrain that you don't see because there's snow on top of it," he said. "You hit that with your front casters, you could do a header."

It's not enough to just focus on high traffic areas for snow removal, either.

"Even if you do your main thoroughfares—Genesee Street, Oriskany Boulevard and all that good stuff—you still have a lot of neighborhoods where people with disabilities live that people can't even walk on the sidewalks, never mind roll on them or use walkers," McLain said.

People with disabilities often assume certain streets aren't available to them if the property owner tends to neglect snow removal, McLain said.

"If somebody is notorious for not clearing their sidewalks, you're not even going to take a shot at it," he said. "It's kind of like going somewhere and not seeing that universal symbol for accessibility. If you don't see that, a lot of times you just figure in your mind it's not accessible and might not even try."

Steve Howe is the city reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email him at showe@gannett.com.

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