Reminder: Remove Ice and Snow

Now that Councilman Rashid Burney has put the Municipal Code online, it is easy to find rules such as this:
"The owner of a building occupied by more than four (4) dwelling units shall remove all snow and ice from the driveways and parking lots of the premises and from the walkways between the public sidewalks, parking lots or driveways and the entrances to the dwelling units within twelve (12) hours of daylight after the snow or ice has fallen or formed thereon."

Several days after the ice storm, there was still plenty of ice in the driveway and parking lot of the six-family building where I have lived since 1992. I finally got out my handy Wilkinson Sword swoe, a garden tool with an angled flat blade, that does a neat job of lifting up ice so it can be shoveled out of the way. This is the kind of thing that tenants face when landlords don't obey the city code.

The same section of the code, Sec. 13:7, states that the city may remove snow and ice on public sidewalks and certify the cost, which can then become a lien on the property. As a pedestrian, I for one appreciate the efforts of those who do clear their sidewalks in a timely way. Walking on ice gets scarier as one gets older.

--Bernice Paglia