Show us the money!
Monday, February 2nd, 2009
Residents at the 2170 Cheshire Bridge High Rise are concerned about the damaged sidewalks on Cheshire Bridge Road near their building, particularly in the area between their building and the signalized intersection at Woodland Ave.
Many of the residents here use wheelchairs. Most others are elderly. When PEDS President Sally Flocks attended a recent resident’s association meeting, she heard more than one story of wheelchair users whose chairs tipped over (face forward) on the sidewalks.
Atlanta traffic engineers are developing a Sidewalk and Curb Ramp Transition Plan, which will set goals and priorities for investments aimed at making sidewalks accessible to all users. As part of this, engineers are documenting the condition of sidewalks located near senior housing. Katrina White and Nursef Kedir, who visited Cheshire Bridge Road in January, noticed that the sidewalks are badly damaged.
Following the resident’s association meeting, Sally e-mailed the engineers to ask: “Does the city plan to notify the adjacent property owners of their responsibility to fix the sidewalk and give them a deadline for repairing it? Or will the city use emergency funds to fix it on its own? Can you give me a timeline when residents can expect this stretch of sidewalk to be repaired or replaced?”
Two weeks have passed, and still no answer. The City of Atlanta fails to budget for repairing sidewalks, which prevents Public Works from committing to anything. Would you support a bond referendum that funds sidewalk maintenance? If so, please sign our online petition.