Monday, April 1, 2013
Old Fourth Ward residents want sidewalks around the old David T. Howard High School repaired.
OLD FOURTH WARD — As the city embarks on its campaign to get property owners to repair broken and cracked sidewalks that front their homes, one homeowner here thinks City Hall should lead by example. The David T. Howard High School building at 551 John Wesley Dobbs Ave., would be a good place to start. Opened in 1923 as an elementary school that replaced three other schools opened for freed black slaves and their children, Atlanta Public Schools shuttered it in 1976. But the school, bounded by Randolph, Irwin and Howell streets, is flanked by broken sidewalks. It's an issue Billy Hungeling, a Howell Street resident, feels the city should address, especially if residential property owners are to be expected to do the same. "Sure-footed …
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Broken infrastructure decreases quality of life.
- OPINION
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Wednesday, February 27
CANDLER PARK — Like many desirable, historic, intown Atlanta communities, this neighborhood is characterized by grand homes, leafy, tree-lined streets and an active residents' association. But Candler Park, like other communities including Ormewood Park and Grant Park, among others, suffers from broken sidewalks. Much of the discussion in recent weeks has centered around whose responsibility it is to repair city sidewalks. In this Patch Voices editorial, Bonnie Palter, a longtime Candler Park resident and recording secretary of the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization, explains the real impact that the city's broken pedestrian infrastructure has on walkers/runners, parents pushing strollers and most especially, those with physical …
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Georgia Tech professor gets grant to create database of city streets.
Atlanta has 2,500 miles of sidewalks. And according to Richard Mendoza, Atlanta's public works commissioner, about half of them are in some state of disrepair. To what degree, though, is unknown. Georgia Tech, which was awarded a two-year transportation grant for a sidewalk database, aims to find out. The $400,000 grant, awarded by the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center at the University of Florida and the U.S. Department of Transportation, will help Tech researchers create visual inventories of every stretch of sidewalk in Atlanta and create an index on their physical condition. It comes as the city begins to push enforcement of an existing ordinance that puts the responsibility of …
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Streets in Grant Park have the same problem.
- GOVERNMENT
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Wednesday, February 20
Dear Editor: I live in Grant Park and this morning I read your article (Broken Sidewalks Build Pathways to Controversy, Feb. 8, 2013) about sidewalks in Ormewood Park — Grant Park's close neighbor — that the neighborhood association posted to its Facebook page. Ironically, this is an issue that my friends have heard me complaining about a lot in the last week. On Feb. 5, I tweeted Mayor Reed and posted pictures of the sidewalk on my street. I asked him why we are funding a new Falcon's stadium when I watch women with babies in strollers walk my street every day to bypass the horrific sidewalk. His response was that there are separate city funds for this type of repair. I was horrified to read that the city is sending certified letters to …
Friday, February 15, 2013
'I apologize for the harsh tone of those letters.'
ORMEWOOD PARK — Taxpayers received something they don't often hear from Atlanta City Hall: an apology. In a meeting of the South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development, Thursday night, Richard Mendoza, commissioner of the the Atlanta Department of Public Works, apologized to Ormewood Park residents who received letters in the last few weeks regarding the condition of the sidewalks on Delaware Avenue and other streets. The letters, which he admitted are harsh in tone, told residents they were responsible for fixing their cracked or dilapidated sidewalks and driveway curb cuts. But they caused a row in Ormewood Park, the first community to be hit with them, part of what public works officials say will be citywide crackdown on broken …
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Public Works representatives will do onsite walk-throughs on Feb. 23.
ORMEWOOD PARK — Property owners who have received letters from the city ordering them to repair sidewalks in front of their homes will have a chance to question the Atlanta Department of Public Works. A DPW representative is scheduled to attend the monthly meeting of the South Atlantans for Neighborhood Development, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 14 at Beulah Heights University, 892 Berne St. Anyone who wants to ask a question in advance to is asked to send an e-mail to SAND: president@sandatlanta.org. As part of the DPW's outreach to homeowners, it also will do a a walk-through in the neighborhood on Feb. 23 at 10 a.m. to address individual homeowner concerns and reservations. A sign-up sheet will be provided at the SAND meeting for …
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
'The State Constitution does grant our cities the power to tax and pass laws that they see fit. If someone is trying to fight the City's authority to pass the Ordinance, they are probably not going to win that argument.'
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
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Tuesday, February 12
by David H. Glass Case law is well established that a landowner is responsible if injuries occur due to the landowner's creation of a defective condition on the sidewalks (Broken Sidewalks Build Pathways to Controversy, Feb. 8, 2013). If the landowner has nothing to do with the creation of a defective sidewalk, liability should rest with the City. In a Georgia Appellate case, Reed v. Baston-Cook Co., (1970) the Court reasoned: Where the injuries occur not on the property but on a sidewalk adjacent thereto, a different rule is applicable. 'The law places upon a municipality the duty of keeping its sidewalks safe for travel in the ordinary manner. Codes, §§ 69-301, 69-303; Hammock v. City of Augusta, 83 Ga.App. 217, 63 S.E.2d 290. The …
An Ormewood Park resident received one of the letters from the Atlanta Department of Public Works that says his sidewalk needs repair. But a photograph of the pathway in question, suggests otherwise.
- OPINION
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Tuesday, February 12
Dear Editor: Here's my sidewalk at 833 Gilbert St. The city says it needs $1,000 in repairs, and the curb needs $3,000 in repairs, and it needs to be done in 45 days, or they'll fix it and send me the bill. (Broken Sidewalks Build Pathways to Controversy, Feb. 8, 2013). The sidewalk is in good condition and the curb is buried underneath layers of pavement, courtesy of Public Works. When has Public Works gotten anything done in 45 days? — Ken Boff, Ormewood Park
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Atlanta Department of Public Works sent a series of letters sent to Ormewood Park residents in recent days regarding broken sidewalks it says they are responsible for paying to repair.
ORMEWOOD PARK — Following a 2012 complaint of a disabled man who reported difficulty in traversing parts of Delaware Avenue in his wheelchair, the Department of Public Works sent 26 certified letters to homeowners that order them to repair cracked sidewalks and driveways. If they don't repair the sidewalks and driveway curb cuts that are uneven, cracked or broken, the city will fix them, and then charge the homeowner. It's the first step in a larger crackdown that public works officials plan for the entire city. The move has renewed a longstanding debate over just whose responsibility it is to pay for sidewalk repairs: Public works officials say it rests squarely with the property owner. But homeowners and at least one pedestrian safety …
FamilyOfFour
8:15 am on Wednesday, February 27, 2013
I agree 100% that all public sidewalks need to be kept up and handicap accessible. There are so many transportation issues in Atlanta. No bike lanes, terrible sidewalks on main roads, not handicap accessible corners, aggressive driving habits, etc... I almost hit a man in his motorized wheelchair while he went out into the road. I didnt understand why he just flew out into traffic, but now I know… more ›