City Sidewalks

return to clothworks

A short time later, we were walking on South Park Street, in the relative quiet of the residential neighborhood. Another truck with big tires came screaming up South Street, making the turn onto South Park at about 50 or 60 miles an hour. On two wheels, no less!

All I can say is, this time we had a sidewalk, and didn’t have to jump into the bushes!

I would encourage the town to come up with a plan that would provide for building and repairing sidewalks, just as they do for the streets. I think this busy state route, bisecting a residential neighborhood, would be a prime spot for building sidewalks.

There are other ways the community could address the needs of the pedestrians in town. After all, we hope there will be more pedestrians in the years to come, what with scarce, expensive oil and the climate change all these cars have helped cause.

The town could take responsibility for clearing the snow in areas where there is a lot of pedestrian traffic. This would be especially useful in the downtown area where there are a few empty storefronts, which unfortunately don’t always get shoveled.

In my ideal community, local residents would do this shoveling. It could be paid from a fund made up of winter parking fines. I’m sure the town could find some people who wanted to earn a few bucks during winter storms.

We could decide, as we used to in Willimantic, to ban parking on narrower streets when there are snow banks.

People who violate the winter snow-parking ban could be given a ticket that requires them to shovel a section of sidewalk during the next storm.

By Mark Svetz

I have been thinking about those sandals and that conversation lately. I am still, as I was back in those days, a walker. Last year, Sarah and I drove our car less than 4,000 miles. The sidewalks and footpaths of our community and beyond are my highways.

When Willimantic Housing Authority Director, Michael Westerfield wrote to the Town of Windham to complain about the plows pushing snow back onto the sidewalks after the Authority crews had cleared them, I could understand his frustration.

As I understand this situation, the town feels the responsibility to clear the streets “from curb to curb,” which leaves few options but to put the snow on the sidewalk.

The town also, through its ordinances, places the responsibility on the adjacent property owners to remove the snow from the sidewalks.

Ah, there’s the rub!

The curb represents the thin concrete line, on either side of which well-intentioned people feel duty bound to remove the snow.

“Where to put it?” is the question.

Sarah and I shovel the snow religiously from the sidewalk in front of our shop on Church Street. I take the time to walk shovelfuls of snow around the corner of the building, or build a “snow fort” on the edge of the sidewalk, just behind the curb, talking great care to keep the chunks from falling off into the street or the sidewalk.

Of course, we have to dig the curb cuts so people can get from the street up onto the sidewalk. A well-cleared sidewalk is a beautiful thing!

Mark Svetz and Sarah Winter own Clothworks, a shop on Church Street in Downtown Willimantic, where they make and sell clothing and bags. Come check out their cleared sidewalk and curb cuts!

We live on Pleasant Street, which has that nifty little grass strip between the sidewalk and the street, eliminating that whole problem of where to put the snow.

From our house it is only a 15- or 20-minute walk down Windham Road (Route 32) to Windham IGA. But guess what? About half way between the Frog Bridge and Windham IGA, the sidewalks disappear. Many people live an easy walk from this great, locally owned grocery store, but let me tell you, Rt. 32 is anything but “pedestrian friendly.”

Sarah and I feel like we are taking our life in our hands when we walk here. We will usually walk through the neighborhood south of Pleasant, taking the side streets all the way down to Selden Street, past the American Legion ball field. But guess what? That’s about where the sidewalk on Rt. 32 ends.

So there we are, having walked out of our way and still left with no choice but to walk on this busy state highway’s narrow shoulder a scant couple feet – or less! –from cars and trucks speeding by at 50 and 60 miles an hour.

That is NOT pedestrian friendly!

“People like us have to think of our shoes as part of our transportation budget,” my friend Kathy Warpinsky told me years ago.

I was first starting out as a teacher and Kathy, a gifted teacher and dedicated walker, was giving me advice. She was trying to convince me to “invest” in a pair of Birkenstock sandals. I couldn’t imagine paying $75 dollars for a pair of shoes. I was pretty naive, huh?

“If you had to buy new tires for your car, you’d spend $75, right?” Kathy said.

I was convinced and made a trip to Northampton, MA, where I bought a pair of $75 sandals. Just as an aside, Jon Walker, at the Shoe Smith, resoled those sandals several times over the next 10 years. I never regretted the purchase.

Sometimes, a paradigm shift is needed to see a situation clearly.

I feel some confidence that our new First Selectman, Jean deSmet, will try and come up with a solution to this old problem. After all, much attention was paid during the campaign, to making downtown Willimantic more pedestrian friendly.

I hope everyone involved remembers that pedestrians are taxpayers, too. We spend a lot of money and effort in our culture, catering to automobiles. We have an equal obligation to provide for the safety and ease of walkers.

But what I am thinking about now is not telling the town how to plow the streets, but a way of balancing the needs of pedestrians and drivers. We all pay for the streets and sidewalks, and have a right to expect consideration.

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”

– Steven Wright

That consideration might come in many forms. Certainly clearing the sidewalks is one way. Building them is another.

We had a funny incident happen on our way home from a New Years Eve party on Old Plains Road, right behind Windham IGA. We left our friend’s house in the wee hours of January 1, looking forward to the walk home.

No sooner had we walked onto Rt. 32, than we heard the dreaded sound of screeching tires. There was a pick-up truck doing doughnuts in the IGA parking lot. Then the truck and another car raced out toward Willimantic. Sarah and I jumped into the bushes as the vehicles roared past us, fishtailing down the road.

It is a bummer when the plows come along the day after the storm and push the snow banks back all the way to the curb, sometimes covering our sidewalk again in the process.

If we have a real winter, with snow banks persisting, we can always remove the snow with a front-end loader. We do it now sometimes, and I’m sure it’s expensive, but if we have to clear the streets “from curb to curb,” the snow has to go somewhere.

I like deSmet’s idea to form a task force and come up with a solution for next winter. I think the task force should be assigned to think about the whole range of pedestrian issues.

Let’s make this a pedestrian-friendly town!

WILLIMANTIC –FEBRUARY, 2008