Squeaky Wheel

Hi Readers! It's been a while. Hope you all had a lovely holiday and are having a fantastic new year so far.

OK down to business. We all know the sidewalks in Cleveland-Holloway are a joke, especially considering our proximity to downtown. When we first moved in, I started fighting a battle with the city to have the sidewalks in our lovely new neighborhood repaired. I know lots of others have been fighting this fight too, but have had little success. When the city decided not to pave the whole neighborhood, I pleaded with them to do just Carlton Ave since it's one of the worst. When this didn't fly either, I decided to selfishly push for the sidewalk in front of our house alone. This too was met with resistance, but it finally happened!

As you can see, our sidewalk was not the worst on the block by far, but not great either. Chunks of concrete were continuing to break off in places, and there was a big patch of missing sidewalk right at the base of our stairs which became a muddy mess every time it rained.

I submitted tickets to the city over and over for weeks. Various city workers came out to look at the problem. There was some concern about whether or not our retaining wall was built over the sidewalk--they thought this might cause problems when demoing the old concrete. Others we talked to seemed to think it was fine. Photos were taken, and we were told that the city would be out to work on it soon. Lies...all lies. Finally, one morning I walked out of my house to find no less than 8 city workers taking measurements. They assured me they would be back in two weeks finish the job. After months of emails, I was thrilled but still apprehensive.

But happen it did! The guys got to work ripping up the old sidewalk with a finesse I have rarely seen with a backhoe. They did an awesome job and our retaining wall remained pristine.

They had almost half the sidewalk ripped up before I had to head off to work.

When I got home, this beautiful sight awaited me. Yay!

This post is mostly to encourage you other C+H residents to not give up hope. Basically, my tactic was constant vigilance. I submitted a ticket every other week or so using this link. From the drop down, pick "sidewalk needs to be repaired". Occasionally I'd get a follow up phone call or someone coming by the house to take measurements or photos. There were lots of promised dates and speculation, but I just kept submitting those tickets and eventually it happened. I know it's not the whole neighborhood, but maybe if we each individually take up arms for our own sidewalk they will do the whole neighborhood. Go get 'em!

http://durhamnc.gov/Pages/doc_online_form.aspx