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natedurrett

Dangerous Passage and Multiplying Fines as Ice Is Left Uncleared - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...eates-a-dangerous-passage.html

NY ice danger

shared by natedurrett on 04 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • William Sullivan, 56, shuffled forward a foot at a time, feeling around for soft spots as he tried to avoid the slick areas that would take him down. He made it, that time. His 84-year-old neighbor was not so lucky; he fell last month going to the corner bodega for coffee, and he still has back pain.
  • In the city, where walking is a way of life, keeping sidewalks clear in the winter is not merely a neighborly courtesy, it is also required under the law.
  • The Sanitation Department has issued more than 10,000 tickets this winter and more than 42,000 tickets since 2010, according to a New York Times analysis of city data. In total, those tickets carried fines of nearly $8.5 million (excluding a small percentage of tickets that were successfully challenged), of which just $2.6 million has been paid so far.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Some residents say the tickets have made little, if any, difference, in their neighborhoods. For instance, city sanitation supervisors and enforcement agents have repeatedly come by the houses at 896 and 892 East 167th Street, affixing a total of 64 tickets to the chain-link fence and wood partitions in front since 2010. Still, the ice remains.
  • A bulk of the issue is that in vacant buildings it can be difficult to determine who the owner is, who is responsible for maintenance, or to compel payment.
  • “Everybody complains about it in the neighborhood, but nothing gets done,” said Mr. Sullivan, a cook and single father of eight. “I really get mad because children and the elderly have to pass here every day. It’s dangerous, and it has to be cleaned up.”
  • Keith Mellis, a spokesman for the Sanitation Department, emphasized that this snow and ice removal was “the sole responsibility” of private property owners.
  • natedurrett on 04 Mar 15
     
    This is a more local topic, but it raises an interesting question. If the lot is owned but foreclosed/vacant, whose responsibility is it to maintain the property so it isn't a public hazard?
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