KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Everywhere you go in the metro you see sidewalks totally snow packed without a shovel ever touching them. Pedestrians say it’s dangerous and the city should crack down.
Jeanette Arnold walks everywhere. She walks to work, the grocery shopping, and the Laundromat, among other things. And she says every year she battles treacherous sidewalks.
“Not everybody has a car I’m sure a lot of people have been hurt,” said Arnold.
Hurt, because she says snowy and icy sidewalks are dangerous but forcing pedestrians to walk in the street is even more dangerous.
“I did walk in the street because I had laundry and they were good about it even the bus kind of came out,” said Arnold.
“It’s not safe but I walk facing traffic and I walk as close to the curb as I can but then you have some people come at you and they think I’m going to step in that stuff and I’m not going to,” she said.
Rob McKnight would also like to see the sidewalks cleared better.
Kansas City, Mo.’s ordinance says snow must be cleared from sidewalks in a “reasonable amount of time,” but McKnight says he understands that some people just can’t do it themselves, like people with disabilities or the elderly.
“But for some people there is no reasonable amount of time because some people can’t do it unfortunately, and I think there needs to be some ordinance to let people get that help, but for people who can do it, it has been a reasonable amount of time to get it cleared off. I know we had it done the day after,” said McKinght.
KCMO’s ordinance says people face a $25 to $100 fine, but some people we talked to wonder whether the city is enforcing the fine and say more should be done to keep pedestrians like them safe.
“If they have any foot traffic at all they should be ashamed,” said Arnold.
City offices were closed on Saturday, but in the past the city has encouraged people to call in bad spots to the 311 action center.