Description
I wanted to post this morning as an example of why taxpayers get so frustrated with city governments. In this case, Ansonia and its lack of road/sidewalk maintenance in some neighborhoods it seems to have left behind.
This photo I was able to snap yesterday morning. It is a stretch of sidewalk I drive by sometimes when picking a friend up to head to work together. It’s on Platt Street. I wasn’t going to go into location but how can I expect someone to step up and fix this if I don’t say where it is?
I wasn’t going to mention location because it’s not the point. THIS is how the City of Ansonia has left sidewalks in some neighborhoods this summer? Forget the condition of the sidewalk itself, there is a garden of weeds growing that is so unsightly the city should give itself a citation for blight.
I am certain, once upon a time, the city would spray for weeds on sidewalks. I clearly recall seeing the sidewalks wet and then weeds dying off and unless it was someone who worked for Home Depot and had 1,000 gallons of roundup handy and was going a community service, the city had to have been doing the spraying. No more.
How does this make the city look? There are actually homes for sale on this street. When potential buyers come to look at them THIS is the impression Ansonia wants to make on them? “Please invest in Ansonia so you can watch roads and sidewalks decay while your tax dollars go…. “
While I do enjoy lively debate, please let’s not have a chorus of “the sidewalks are the responsibility of the property owner” because clearly the property owners are not aware the sidewalks belong to them or lack the resources to make proper repairs and maintenance. That leaves them like this forever and solves nothing.
This means the city had to either notify all homeowners of their responsibility and hold them accountable (heck, do it neighborhood by neighborhood) or simply take control and fix the sidewalks in these neighborhoods realizing it for the good of the city that they be maintained.
Hopefully, this post will get conversation and action taken.
14 Comments
Fred Sampson (Guest)
Good topic for discussion. I think it is kind of hard for the City to enforce this when there are larger blight issues facing them. Grass growing up through the sidewalk compared to acres and acres of industrial wasteland downtown. How do you ask homeowners to clean their property when you have Farrels looming in the background.
I guess the Mayor could help clean up Healey Ford, right? During election time he told DellaVolpe he didn't need to write letters to the land owner, that he should go clean it himself. Tell Cassetti to put on his work clothes and get going :)
I am encouraged that there is discussion of cleaning up downtown, but I'll believe it when I see it. I just don't think a $500K grant is going to go very far.
Ryan Healey (Registered User)
I agree, excellent topic.
You can say that homeowners are responsible for maintenance of sidewalks all you want. It takes one drive through these neighborhoods to see either EVERY homeowner is in violation and needs to be written by the city OR the City needs to fix the sidewalks. You can't just let them crumble away and grow forests of weeds.
And if a pedestrian were to trip on those weeds or a hole in the sidewalk they were growing out of and break a leg, who gets sued? Ansonia or the homeowner? Wouldn't the city letting that situation go unchecked be a party to the suit?
Fred, I also have to agree that while I am encouraged about downtown news, $500,000 is maybe a TENTH of what it will take to tear down and clean up the land where those abandoned factories are.
I didn't realize Cassetti owned a construction company until recently. I trust they can lay new sidewalks?
Ward 6 (Registered User)
Fred,
Healey Ford has been cleared of weeds/brush. Drove by a couple of hours ago. Think it was done today..
Ryan Healey (Registered User)
With Target and Big Y nearby one would think the Healey Ford site would be a good place to take down and put up a good size shopping center. Not big enough for a supermarket but...
However, with so many being built these days on Pershing what tenants would line up I'm not sure of.
Michael Raymond (Registered User)
While I appreciate a discussion of other problems in Ansonia... I had intended this to be a discussion of the conditions of sidewalks in the city. Can anyone shed light on that issue?
Thanks!
LeiAngel (Registered User)
Michael Raymond (Registered User)
Upon further inspection of this piece of sidewalk, I discovered a MAJOR cause of the weeds if a big hole THE CITY tore open at the corner to put in a new street sign. They didn't even bother to patch the hole and now a ton of weeds are growing from it around the sign base.
What a way to handle sidewalks. Tear them open, not repair the damage, let them get overgrown with weeds, etc.
And LeiAngel, I appreciate your comment but it's nearing the end of August. When is Ansonia going to spray for weeds.. after the first frost this fall!?
LeiAngel (Registered User)
LeiAngel (Registered User)
Michael Raymond (Registered User)
MissOldValley (Registered User)
Michael Raymond (Registered User)
Dmmilt, I hear you.
However it is VERY clear driving around neighborhoods with sidewalks in Ansonia that homeowners are NOT AWARE they are responsible for the sidewalks in front of their home. They view it as part of the street.
In fact, when Platt Street had an oil spill over a decade ago, one side of the street received all new sidewalks as part of the replacement of the road. That would echo the idea that "sidewalks and streets" are Ansonia's to maintain.
There are so many homes with crumbling and dangerous sidewalks in front of them, I have no idea why the city doesn't simply send notices to a select number of homeowners (one neighborhood at a time) and make them aware their sidewalk is unsafe and they are liable for injuries.
HOWEVER, some guidelines must be provided. We can't have each homeowner running to Home Depot or Lowe's for bags of concrete and "make their own sidewalks" each with different materials, heights and qualities. There need to be set specs.
Michael Raymond (Registered User)
Well I return years later as I watch weeds grow up in every possible rack in the sidewalks you can find. Most of this is caused by sidewalks that are deteriorating so badly weeds are coming up around telephone poles, cracks, street signs it anywhere else they can (visit Platt, Hodge or Columbia for prime examples)
The sidewalks remain unrepaired which would seal most of the spots weeds could grow out of and Ansona homeowners in many areas still are oblivious to the fact that they are responsible for the maintenance and repair of sidewalks for their property. I find this impossible to understand as the city could notify them quite easily with just a simple letter. Until then we have weeds growing up everywhere truly making city streets look unkept.
Does the city have a solution other than "the sidewalks belong to the homeowners to maintain" which is failing. If we could enforce the parking ban late winter and tow cars is in mass to teach lessons we can fine homeowners with sidewalks beggin for a pedestrian to trip and break their leg and certainly suing the city first for they injures right or wrong.
Closed john (Registered User)