After a massive storm late last month dumped about a foot of snow on Pittsburgh, many sidewalks, parking spots and transit stops remained covered for days.
That made it challenging for people, especially those who are physically disabled, to navigate the snow, slush and ice.
It’s a problem Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, wants to tackle.
“This snowstorm — a once-in-a-decade snowstorm that we had — really exposed the need for the city to be able to effectively clean not just our roadways, but also our other right-of-ways, including curb cuts and sidewalks and all kinds of things,” Warwick said.
On Tuesday, she introduced legislation that would create an inventory of such areas — including curb cuts, intersections, transit stops, accessible parking spots and parking near business districts, schools, day cares, community centers and houses of worship — that should be cleared of snow after a storm.
It’s the “first step,” she said, toward figuring out how to prioritize which areas should be treated first and how to balance those needs with efforts to make roads passable.
Warwick said it will be a large dataset. City officials will use a number of resources — including data collected through calls to the nonemergency 311 help line — to determine which areas are in most critical need of being plowed or salted after snow.
The inventory can also help the city home in on areas where officials want to enforce rules for property owners to clear their sidewalks.
“We can’t enforce every single sidewalk across the city,” Warwick acknowledged, but said enforcement can be targeted.
The councilwoman said she is hopeful the city will have adequate resources next year to more comprehensively clear such areas — as well as the roads — when it snows.
On Jan. 26, Mayor Corey O’Connor declared a state of emergency after dozens of snowplows broke down during the storm, which produced the city’s biggest daily snowfall in 16 years.
But officials are prepared to buy about 50 new plows, a major upgrade to an aging, breakdown-prone fleet.
Warwick’s legislation requires that the inventory be compiled by Nov. 15, ahead of next winter.
