A couple of summers ago, Dallas resident Melody Townsel swerved around a sign left in the middle of a sidewalk in her neighborhood of the Cedars. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy wheels went off the wheelchair. I fell into the fence, and ended up badly injured \u2014 broke a pair of glasses, I separated my shoulder, and I\u2019m still feeling the aftereffects of that,\u201d Townsel said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no one to blame, nothing to do.\u201d <\/p>\n
In Dallas, it can take people stumbling upon unsafe and hazardous conditions to alert the city to its sidewalk problems<\/a>. Since October 2020, residents have reported more than 5,000 hazardous sidewalk conditions citywide to Dallas\u2019 311 system.<\/p>\n Breaking News<\/p>\n Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think unless you walk with me on a sidewalk, you don\u2019t realize how completely impassable they are,\u201d Townsel said. \u201cIt\u2019s everywhere, all the time.\u201d <\/p>\n Sidewalk obstructions like overgrown bushes and utility poles often block Townsel\u2019s path as she makes her way through the city, sometimes forcing her to use her wheelchair in the street. Dallas relies on residents to report obstructions like these through its 311 program. <\/p>\n \u201cDallas is not a proactive city,\u201d said Uptown resident Alex Stine. \u201cIt is a reactive city, and a poorly reactive city at that.\u201d <\/p>\n As a business-to-business salesperson and Uber driver, Richardson resident Adam Sharkey spends hours on Dallas roads each week. He\u2019s filed more than 1,000 311 requests in the last six months, ranging from pothole repairs to reports of unsafe sidewalk conditions. <\/p>\n Once he sends in a request, Sharkey said, he receives email updates from various city agencies as they work to solve the problem. The updates have given him insight into the way the city operates. <\/p>\n Replacement is residents\u2019 responsibility<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a lot of people don\u2019t realize,\u201d Sharkey said, \u201cis that in Dallas, the responsibility of the sidewalk falls to the property owner, not the city.\u201d <\/p>\n City ordinance states<\/a> that property owners are responsible for repairing hazardous conditions or replacing damaged sidewalks on their property. Recently, Sharkey reported a section of the sidewalk by Greenville Avenue and SMU Boulevard that had completely caved in, in the hope that the Code Compliance department would reach out to the adjacent apartment complex and have them fix it. <\/p>\n Instead, what followed was a chain of emails from the Code Compliance and Transportation and Public Works departments debating who was responsible for the sidewalk. Code Compliance had determined that the sidewalk was beyond the apartment\u2019s property line, Sharkey said, which placed the sidewalk under the care of Transportation and Public Works. <\/p>\n \u201cBut then public works kicked it back to code enforcement and said, \u2018Well, even if it\u2019s not on their property, they\u2019re still the benefiting party because they\u2019re the closest property, and therefore it\u2019s still their legal responsibility.\u2019\u201d Sharkey explained. \u201cThey\u2019ve actually been kicking that back and forth for weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n One reason damaged sidewalks might go unrepaired, Sharkey said, is because people don\u2019t want to pay to fix something they are not sure they are required to. And even if code enforcement wanted to proactively make all property owners fix their sidewalks, he added, they don\u2019t have the resources for the required enforcement and follow-up. This can get expensive, depending on the scale of the project.<\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody\u2019s got a home that\u2019s worth, you know, $220,000 and you ask them to spend eight grand to fix the sidewalk in front of their house, that\u2019s 4% of the value of their home,\u201d Sharkey said. \u201cNow, that same size lot in Lower Greenville, the house is probably worth $1.7 million. To ask somebody with a home worth $1.7 million to go find eight grand to fix the sidewalk \u2014 they might be able to get that cash by refinancing their mortgage if they don\u2019t have it.\u201d <\/p>\n Owners of single-family homes, including condos, townhomes and single-family rentals, can split the cost of replacing their sidewalks with the city through Dallas\u2019 Sidewalk Replacement Program<\/a>. <\/p>\n City programs relieve some financial pressure<\/p>\n For program participants, the city secures all necessary permits for replacement, with all workmanship guaranteed for one year, according to the Transportation and Public Works department. Assessment and cost estimation can take up to three months. After payment is received, it can take another three to nine months for the replacement to be completed, according to the city. <\/p>\n Not all residents who apply to the Sidewalk Replacement Program end up moving forward, which contributes to the program\u2019s low completion rates. Residents may end up declining participation in the program, the city said, or choose to use a private contractor to complete their work. One reason for this may be that, even with the cost sharing program, sidewalk replacements can still be prohibitively expensive. <\/p>\n