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| Half of Sidewalk GONE |
As a photographer I put a lot of miles on my shoes walking about the town of Nyack, and its various same name counter parts. When you do that much walking in an area, you notice little things such as a broken water main leaking into the town's storm drains and other such little issues. You also notice some other issues that might seem not so important at first blush, but actually present some potentially serious safety issues for the citizenry of Nyack.
A normal sidewalk can usually handle two citizens abreast of one another, so that if you come across a passerby heading in the opposite direction you can safely walk past one another without bumping, or without one or the other of you having to step to the side. However, there are numerous homes in our area that sit along major traffic roads that present serious danger to those walking on their sidewalks...especially if say a couple is pushing a baby carriage, and you are walking toward them when suddenly the sidewalk narrows down to a point where one person can barely squeeze by, thus causing someone to step aside, sometimes onto the roadway where cars are whisking by.
What you might ask could cause a sidewalk to suddenly narrow, as they are poured concrete, hardened, in place for years, even decades? Privacy hedges that have been allowed to grow out of control, hedges that though nice and neatly trimmed extend out into the sidewalk easements...in some cases as much as two feet! Try walking down parts of say Broadway, or Franklin St. (just too name two random streets) on a busy traffic day, and you will come to certain hedges that greatly intrude on to what are supposed to be public sidewalks. When you come across one of these barriers, if someone(s) are coming in the opposite direction toward you, one of you is going to have to step aside, sometimes into the public street.
So the question then becomes...are there ordinances against this intrusion into the public walking spaces (sidewalks)? Yes there are such rules in place. Are they being enforced? No...according to Nyacks building department, they are simply too busy to police such violations, would need one person just to handle this area of concern.
So one more question...if we can have so many people on salary walking around issuing parking tickets, why can't Nyack hire someone to walk around and write up violations of this nature. Doubt that a illegally parked vehicle is going to pose much of a public safety risk, but would venture to guess that forcing people to step out onto streets with passing cars on it could pose a serious safety risk, and also thinking the city would be the first party named in a lawsuit if someone were injured because the sidewalks were allowed to become all but impassable. So how about it Mayor White..."Can we hire someone who's job it is too walk around Nyack finding blocked sidewalks, pay them to work with the community and home owners to get problem hedges back within the rules, can we pay someone to write up violators when they do not come into compliance?"
