Snow-clogged sidewalks spur 439 complaints to Hamilton bylaw since record storm

Allan Bedford's frustration over Hamilton's sidewalk snow-clearing priorities boiled over a week after a record storm dumped nearly 50 centimetres of the white stuff on the city - with more now in the forecast.

Bedford walked - or in some cases, clambered over - a 900-metre section of pedestrian pathways through his Crown Point neighbourhood Monday and documented 22 impassable," snow-clogged corner ramps meant to allow scooters and wheelchairs to mount or leave the sidewalk.

Late last week, he noted well-cleared paths through Bob Mackenzie Park - but scratched his head over a 30-metre section of sidewalk leading to a park entrance that remained snowed under.

It just seems so silly to me. I don't understand it," Bedford said after submitting his detailed complaint to the city and Tweeting photos of his walk.

I'm 52, reasonably healthy and pretty mobile, but it's a struggle for me to get down the street. If you're in a wheelchair or a scooter, everywhere you look there is a snow mound that may as well be a six-foot-tall brick wall."

Bedford joins at least 439 residents to file complaints to the city over uncleared sidewalks since the end of last week's storm, according to the city bylaw department.

So far, bylaw has recorded 105 violations of the city's increasingly contentious snow-clearing bylaw, which requires most residents to clear the section of sidewalk in from of their homes within 24 hours of the end of a winter storm.

The city declared the storm a significant weather event," which did not officially end until Wednesday.

The city can issue orders to homeowners who don't clear sidewalk snow in a timely fashion - and in a worst-case scenario, even send in its own cleanup crew and add the bill to the property taxes of snow-shovelling scofflaws.

But the city does not crack down on homeowners before all municipal snow-clearing is done. Residents were still pointing out uncleared sidewalks adjacent to city parks over the weekend.

The city said it only started sending out its own cleanup crews to deal with order-ignoring property owners Monday.

Regardless, it can easily take days for a complaint to translate into a cleared sidewalk. Bedford argued that isn't good enough.

It shouldn't take a grumpy middle-aged systems analyst hounding the city on Twitter to provide an essential service," he wrote in a series of tweets Monday. There should be a system in place to handle something as simple as clearing snow."

Hamilton has debated for years whether to provide sidewalk snow-clearing as a citywide service.

Groups like the Disability Justice Network of Ontario waged high-profile online campaigns in recent years urging residents to share photos of snow-blocked sidewalks, transit stops and public buildings.

Council recently reached a compromise that will see municipal plows clear sidewalks on about 780 kilometres of transit routes starting next winter, with the average homeowners paying an extra $12 in taxes as a result. (The city already clears sidewalks adjacent to city property and some areas of Ancaster as a result of an amalgamation-era agreement.)

A true citywide service covering nearly 2,500 kilometres of sidewalk would cost the average household closer to $26 extra, city bureaucrats estimated.

To complain to bylaw about an uncleared sidewalk, call 905-546-2489 or email mle@hamilton.ca.

Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at for The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com