Reply to Sidewalk in Bethesda to keep kids and adults safe.

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Sidewalk in Bethesda to keep kids and adults safe."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I mentioned this issue on another thread. I live on a busy street but my kids are ultimately much safer because we have proper sidewalks. The county should make sidewalks a priority, especially around schools. For example, a few years ago MCPS spent millions to construct [b]Silver Creek Middle School, but most of the neighborhood around the school has no sidewalks[/b].[/quote]

Quite a few of us in this neighborhood put a huge effort in to try and get sidewalks about 18 months ago. We got it through a county feasibility study, but the neighborhood opposition was extraordinary. The county now won't even hold the public hearing that they're required to hold as the next step in the process. A handful of people controlling the HOA and some very vocally opposed neighbors who called council members and county staff daily have effectively shut this down. Very unkind things were said on the listserv and directly to faces of families and neighbors in support of sidewalks. It's been painful to live through and really damaging to neighborhood relationships. We dread the day that there is an accident involving a neighbor (kid or adult) that makes this seem urgent. It shouldn't take a death to get action on sidewalks. My heart just breaks today reading about the child in Bradley Hills; I can't even fathom the pain of her family, school friends, and community.[/quote]

What's their problem with sidewalks?!

I live in Kentlands, where we have sidewalks throughout the entire neighborhood. It keeps everyone safer. [/quote]

Specific complaints raised by neighbors: Too many trees will have to be removed; they don't want to be sued if they fail to clear the sidewalk of snow (county liability policies haven't helped here); "most" children go to private school anyway so why does it matter (wish I were joking about that one and it's not even true); no speed bumps should be installed either because it will take longer to get to the Safeway (again, wish I were joking); oh, and sidewalks reduce property values (also not true).[/quote]

Wow. Just, wow.

I would just point them to Kentlands and Lakelands as proof that none of their complaints are real.

Also, beyond the selfishness inherent in the private school comment, do they not realize that installing sidewalks is beneficial for everyone? [/quote]

In some older neighborhoods, it's not as easy as in some newer ones.  We have no sidewalks, and would like them.  But on just my block, you're talking about either (i) destroying stairs, mature trees, drainage systems, walkways, landscaping, etc., which would require significant expense to replace, if putting the sidewalk on people's properties; or (ii) making an already narrow street even narrower, and likely eliminating parking, where many people don't have driveways.

As I said, we'd love a sidewalk, and the above concerns don't apply to us - but you can't pretend that they aren't legitimate concerns that our neighbors have.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics