Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with sidewalk

Who owns the area between the sidewalk and street?

team lowkey — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:31:49 -0800

What rights do the public have to the planting strip (between the sidewalk and street) in a Berkeley residential area? Does the city own the property and the adjacent homeowner is required to maintain it, or does the homeowner own it, and the city has an easement for their own use?

But more specifically, what rights do the public have to that area? Are people allowed to walk their dogs on it? Does it basically count as part of the sidewalk in the eyes of the law?

Home repair referrals in Minneapolis please.

Juicylicious — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:56:53 -0800

I need a referral to a plumber in Minneapolis who can do a good job replacing my 1930 toilet. Also need a roof repair, sidewalk, and tree removal. I'm home on leave and as usual I find my home in disrepair after two years away.

I own a 1930 tudor duplex with the original bathroom fixtures and tile (both wall and floor). It has the old wall-mounted toilet tank, which has a hairline crack and is leaking. I am going to look for a replacement tank tomorrow. If I cannot find one, I will have to replace the entire toilet. After doing some preliminary internet research it appears that plumbing has changed quite a bit in the last 80 years and any replacing can damage walls, floors and aesthetics.

I need a recommendation for an experienced Minneapolis/St. Paul plumber who can either replace the tank or install a new toilet and not turn my bathroom into a disaster zone.

My roof also sustained some damage due from the recent tornadoes. The insurer says the damage is not enough to exceed the deductible. Still it has to be repaired in spots. I need an honest roof person.

I have to put in a sidewalk around my house, going from the front steps around through the backyard to the garage. I was thinking of those poured concrete pieces that look like stones. It is a job that I am not prepared to do on my own.

And lastly, there is a large tree on the property line in front of my house that is beginning to grow into my wrought iron fence. It must be removed. I hold no hope of the owner of the other property taking care of the problem.

All of this has to be done in the next four weeks before I deploy once again for another year.

Can you beat a San Francisco parking ticket if it has no VIN number on it?

roxie110 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:28:06 -0800

Can you beat a San Francisco parking ticket if it has no VIN number on it? Can you beat a "blocking sidewalk" ticket in San Francisco if they say "can not read" VIN number, even though it was readable? Or any other way... :) This is one of those lovely "pulled into boyfriend's driveway leaving plenty of room in front of car for pedestrians to walk by, ran upstairs for 3 minutes, came back to find a ticket--even though it was 8 at night in the middle of nowhere in Outer Sunset." All the other identifying info on the ticket is correct--including the gasp-inducing fine of $100.

Any advice would be appreciated.

What are these weird posts on the sidewalk in Manhattan?

dcjd — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:25:12 -0800

What are these weird posts on the sidewalk in Manhattan? I recently have seen rectangular posts installed on the sidewalk in lower Manhattan. (south of 14th street) They are painted gray, have two circular yellow barriers on the street side to prevent cars from hitting them, and have a scary sticker on the top warning of electrocution. Another hint: the wet paint sign on one says Department of Transportation on it.

Here are two pictures of what I am talking about:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Will I get ticketed for parking my motorcycle on the sidewalk?

arnicae — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:21:31 -0800

Can I park my motorcycle on a sidewalk (not obstructing pedestrian passage) in Oakland, California? I bought a small motorcycle and a very thick chain. But even Kryptonite's 6'6" chain is too short to allow me to lock my bike to poles/trees on my block, even when the bike or tire is snugly against the curb! In order to lock it to a pole as other motorcyclists do, it would need to be on the sidewalk. I realize another work-through is buying a second lock, but I've already spent 20% of the purchase price of the motorcycle itself on this lock, so I'd rather not shell out more $$$.

Other motorcyclists in my neighborhood park on the sidewalks- the only one I know who does this only speaks Mandarin, so asking her if she knows if it is illegal is out.

Anyone know? I know that it is illegal to completely block the sidewalk, but haven't been able to discern any more specifics.

Also related and possibly the dumbest question I've ever asked: I will get ticketed, yes? If my motorcycle is parked illegally somewhere? I had the mechanic who checked out my bike tell me that "motorcycles don't get parking tickets" which seems pretty insane.

Thanks!

How to deal with an NYC summons when you are moving away?

ethel — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:22:53 -0800

So last week in Brooklyn, I was a block from my apartment, hopped my bike up on the sidewalk, got stopped by the popo, and now have a pink summons. But I'm moving away in a month! So my court date is in September, and I'm moving across country very soon! When I mentioned this to the officer, he mumbled something about coming in early, but I was a little flustered and neglected to ask him to explain further.

Does anyone here have experience with this? Can I come in to the courthouse and request an earlier court date? I'm a little freaked out, because I saw in an article online that the fine is $100-$500 or 20 days in jail!

Thanks for any advice!

Got chalks? (har har har)

Ogre Lawless — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:59:41 -0800

I'm looking into doing a sidewalk chalk festival as on of dozens of artists but I've never worked in the medium. Any ideas on materials and methods? And no, I'm not talking kiddie-chalk style. this question has some stuff on spray chalk which might work for backgrounds though potentially piss off my neighboring artists...

Where the sidewalk ends.

horsemuth — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:36:30 -0800

Looking for info about designing sidewalks by understanding human traffic patterns I read a story in a textbook years ago about a university that, when planning their new system of sidewalks between the buildings, planted grass and let the paths that people wore into the grass be the guideline for the new sidewalks that they would put in the next year...does this sound familiar, or can anyone shed some light on this (the story - not the textbook).

Why is it that when it starts to rain, some blocks of concrete sidewalk are completely soaked, while others appear to be completely dry?

Paul KC — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:10:13 -0800

Why is it that when it starts to rain, some blocks of concrete sidewalk are completely soaked, while others appear to be completely dry? I have been wondering about this since I was a little kid, and I hope I'm not the only one to have noticed this. As it starts to rain, I have noticed that some sidewalk squares immediatly get soaked and glisten with water, while the square right next to it appears to be completely dry. What's interesting is that there is a strict boundary between wet and dry and it is always between squares. I have never seen half a square look dry and half look wet. Now, I realize that statistically, the same number of rain drops are falling on each square of concrete, so why does it seems like ALL the drops are falling on one and NONE of them are falling on another?

The only thing I can think of is that the porosity between different sidewalk squres must be different. Perhaps a more porous square sort of wicks the water down into the concrete, leaving less water visible on the surface. But what's got me confused is how two different squares can have different porosities because I would imagine that two bordering squares would have come from the same batch and dried under the same conditions. Also, I see weird patterns as I walk down a sidewalk where two will look wet, one will look dry, one will look wet and then 2 look dry. Different batches and drying conditions just don't seem to explain it well enough for me.

I realize I am probably overthinking such a trivial question, but these are the kind of things that keep me up at night! Please, MeFites, help a poor guy out!

Am I bad neighbour or just lazy?

meringue — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:38:38 -0800

Am I a bad neighbour for not sweeping the sidewalk after I mow my lawn? I don't know whether or not it is common to sweep the sidewalk after mowing one's lawn. I grew up in houses without sidewalks, so when I mowed the lawn for my parents, it was never a consideration. Now that I have a house with sidewalks, I am not sure.

I have only noticed one person on the block sweeping, and that is my next-door neighbour. He also sweeps his walks after shovelling the snow off of them. I haven't seen anyone else doing this, or sweeping up any stray grass clippings, but I don't see them mowing their lawns either, so it could be that I am missing something.

I don't want to be a bad neighbour, but I already hate yardwork as it is, especially anything to do with my pitiful lawn. I am trying to find out whether I am committing a serious transgression by not sweeping, or if it is something that only my meticulous Dutch neighbour does. Do I sweep after mowing? After shovelling snow? Please clue me in to the etiquette.

Sidewalk donuts

Robot Johnny — Mon, 01 May 2006 10:47:24 -0800

On my street (and others, here in Toronto) workers have cut large circular pieces out of the sidewalk about every 10 feet or so. For several days, the big wheels of cement sat nearby, and the holes were covered up with metal lids. Now the pieces are back in the sidewalk, all patched up with cement filling the gaps. So... what the heck was being done there?

What is British sidewalk protocol?

Frank Grimes — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 11:00:43 -0800

What is American sidewalk protocol? Is it the same in Britain? [+]

NYC Mystery

Tin Man — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:56:45 -0800

I hope it's okay to post a NYC-centric question here (I know there are lots of New Yorkers on MeFi). Embedded in the sidewalk pavement along Broadway, from around Battery Park up to about the Woolworth Building (and perhaps farther), are these stone slabs that contain an event or a famous person, followed by the date of the event or some date related to the person. There's one every few yards. Does anyone know what these are for, who put them there, or anything else about them?