City Council takes first step toward sidewalk snow, ice removal pilot program
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago City Council on Wednesday took its first tentative steps toward setting up a program to test the viability of having city crews clear sidewalks of ice and snow in winter.
The council voted to create a working group of city officials tasked with coming up with a pilot program that would make sidewalk snow and ice removal a municipal service.
Shoveling snow is currently the responsibility of property owners, but activists say the failure of many homeowners and business owners to clear and de-ice sidewalks traps people who use mobility aids, including wheelchairs, and others who are elderly or disabled.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), who sponsored the proposal, said many of those people are left stuck at home, unable to even go grocery shopping or pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy when it snows, or else risk riding wheelchairs or walking on plowed streets, because they can't safely travel on icy sidewalks.
Villegas said a municipal sidewalk shoveling program is not unprecedented, saying the city of Toronto clears its sidewalks when it snows, and typically clears them within 13 hours of snow falling.
The ordinance would require the working group to determine which sidewalks in Chicago would be cleared during the pilot program, who would perform the work, how much it would cost, and how the city would pay for it. The group's recommendations would be due back to the City Council by May 31, 2024, for approval of the actual pilot program, with the goal of launching it in January 2025.
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), the only alderperson who voted against the proposal, said it's a bad idea for the city to set up an expectation that city crews will someday shovel sidewalks, arguing the city already struggles to plow the streets when there's heavy snowfall.
He also said the city would end up wiping out the jobs of teens who shovel neighbors' sidewalks for a few extra dollars, telling aldermen they were "opening a can of worms."
"That can is going to be enormous, and it's going to cost the taxpayers a few hundred million dollars," he said.
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and other supporters said they share concerns about the feasibility of having city workers clear sidewalks of snow and ice, but they believe it's worth setting up a program to figure out whether it can be done.
"If you're going to go down this new path, this is how you do it. You do it collaboratively," he said.
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said the city owes it to elderly and disabled people who struggle with getting around on snowy and icy sidewalks in winter to figure out if they can come up with a workable solution.
Mayor Brandon Johnson has voiced support for the pilot program, and as far as concerns the cost could be prohibitive for a citywide program, he said part of the working group's task will be determining the cost of the program.
But the mayor also questioned the hidden cost of leaving thousands of elderly and disabled people homebound when is snows in winter, because they can't safely navigate city sidewalks if they're not shoveled properly.
"The number of seniors that we have in the city of Chicago who have no way out of their homes when snow falls, individuals with disabilities who can't move about in this city, it's enormous," Johnson said. "My question is what's the cost to the city of Chicago when seniors and individuals with disabilities can't move around in the city of Chicago because the season has changed? I need people moving around year-round so that they can go to restaurants, buy food, pay folks a minimum wage, so that we can invest in the services that we're talking about."