Richard Heckler is used to seeing familiar faces in his neighborhood in east Lawrence just off of Haskell Avenue. He rides his bike daily, and often passes by the same scenes. But he says something that he's grown accustomed to seeing shouldn't be normal. For the last few years, Heckler has seen a woman in a wheelchair riding in the street. He said the sidewalks in his neighborhood are in such poor shape that this woman is forced to ride in the street when she wants to get around the neighborhood.
Solving the problem of unkempt sidewalks is not easy. Unfortunately for Lawrence, the city has limited powers in what it can do for sidewalk infrastructure. Sidewalk responsibility falls to property owners to keep sidewalks up to code in front of their houses.
The Lawrence City Code can be found on the city of Lawrence Web site, and describes the standards for sidewalks. The code says that safe sidewalks should not have any out of place brick, plank or stone segment that is more than a half-inch above the plane of the sidewalk. A raised half-inch section of sidewalk could catch the foot of a pedestrian, potentially causing injury.
Chuck Soules, Director of Public Works, said that it costs up to $40 a foot to replace damaged sidewalks. With the nose-diving economy, that extra financial burden isn't likely to be on the top priority list for homeowners. Tax proposals to appear in the ballot Nov. 4 provide an alternative way in which the sidewalks can get the repair and replacement they need.
Three questions will appear on the sales tax ballot. One question would have a 0.2 percent tax increase that would go toward keeping existing systems of public transportation, and another subsequent question would give an additional 0.05 percent tax to go toward providing enhancements to the current public transportation systems. Question number one would add a 0.3 percent sales tax that would go toward maintenance for streets and infrastructure, including sidewalks and trails around Lawrence.
Assistant City Manager Cynthia Boeker said that question No. 1 would allocate $500,000 to residential streets and sidewalk replacement and repair. One of the main areas this money would go to in terms of sidewalks is helping to fix sidewalk gaps around the city. No sidewalk exists at the west side of Massachusetts Street, from 21st to 23rd. The west side of Haskell Avenue from 15th to 23rd has no sidewalk, and neither does the east side of Iowa Street between 27th and 31st streets.
Sidewalk gaps along bigger arterial streets such as these would be given first priority with the money from the sale tax proposals. Smaller residential areas like the neighborhood of Heckler would follow. Soules said that giving more populated streets the priority made sense because of the difference in traffic speeds and flow of traffic. Bikers and pedestrians along Iowa or Sixth Streets face greater hazards with the heavy and face-paced traffic.
Gary MacFadden, senior program director for National Center for Bicycling and Walking said that basic flaws in infrastructure planning contribute to the sidewalk problems in cities such as Lawrence.
"So much of our culture for the last 50 to 60 years has been based around the automobile," MacFadden said. "There is always a large percentage of people without motor vehicles, but we continue to design our cities around the automobile."
The National Center for Bicycling and Walking's mission statement is to change community design and planning to ensure that cities are pedestrian- and bike- friendly. The center hold workshops around the country to help raise awareness of the changes that need to be made in order to build this kind of community. MacFadden said that small steps in changing community design are how the center tries to meet its goal.
"We're not going to be completely revamping a community, but rather simply making small incremental changes," MacFadden said.
Lawrence city officials are now relying on the tax proposal to provide the needed money for sidewalk repair. If the sales tax proposals do not pass, the city will have to think of alternative ways to work with infrastructure problems.
"Without those additional benefits we'll just have to continue to prioritize," Boeker said. "Maintenance would probably happen less frequently, and we'd probably have to look into increasing property taxes to get the job done."
Solving the problem of unkempt sidewalks is not easy. Unfortunately for Lawrence, the city has limited powers in what it can do for sidewalk infrastructure. Sidewalk responsibility falls to property owners to keep sidewalks up to code in front of their houses.
The Lawrence City Code can be found on the city of Lawrence Web site, and describes the standards for sidewalks. The code says that safe sidewalks should not have any out of place brick, plank or stone segment that is more than a half-inch above the plane of the sidewalk. A raised half-inch section of sidewalk could catch the foot of a pedestrian, potentially causing injury.
Chuck Soules, Director of Public Works, said that it costs up to $40 a foot to replace damaged sidewalks. With the nose-diving economy, that extra financial burden isn't likely to be on the top priority list for homeowners. Tax proposals to appear in the ballot Nov. 4 provide an alternative way in which the sidewalks can get the repair and replacement they need.
Three questions will appear on the sales tax ballot. One question would have a 0.2 percent tax increase that would go toward keeping existing systems of public transportation, and another subsequent question would give an additional 0.05 percent tax to go toward providing enhancements to the current public transportation systems. Question number one would add a 0.3 percent sales tax that would go toward maintenance for streets and infrastructure, including sidewalks and trails around Lawrence.
Assistant City Manager Cynthia Boeker said that question No. 1 would allocate $500,000 to residential streets and sidewalk replacement and repair. One of the main areas this money would go to in terms of sidewalks is helping to fix sidewalk gaps around the city. No sidewalk exists at the west side of Massachusetts Street, from 21st to 23rd. The west side of Haskell Avenue from 15th to 23rd has no sidewalk, and neither does the east side of Iowa Street between 27th and 31st streets.
Sidewalk gaps along bigger arterial streets such as these would be given first priority with the money from the sale tax proposals. Smaller residential areas like the neighborhood of Heckler would follow. Soules said that giving more populated streets the priority made sense because of the difference in traffic speeds and flow of traffic. Bikers and pedestrians along Iowa or Sixth Streets face greater hazards with the heavy and face-paced traffic.
Gary MacFadden, senior program director for National Center for Bicycling and Walking said that basic flaws in infrastructure planning contribute to the sidewalk problems in cities such as Lawrence.
"So much of our culture for the last 50 to 60 years has been based around the automobile," MacFadden said. "There is always a large percentage of people without motor vehicles, but we continue to design our cities around the automobile."
The National Center for Bicycling and Walking's mission statement is to change community design and planning to ensure that cities are pedestrian- and bike- friendly. The center hold workshops around the country to help raise awareness of the changes that need to be made in order to build this kind of community. MacFadden said that small steps in changing community design are how the center tries to meet its goal.
"We're not going to be completely revamping a community, but rather simply making small incremental changes," MacFadden said.
Lawrence city officials are now relying on the tax proposal to provide the needed money for sidewalk repair. If the sales tax proposals do not pass, the city will have to think of alternative ways to work with infrastructure problems.
"Without those additional benefits we'll just have to continue to prioritize," Boeker said. "Maintenance would probably happen less frequently, and we'd probably have to look into increasing property taxes to get the job done."
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