Dan Shelley’s dog, Avery, stands on a cracked sidewalk at the 3500 block of Polk Avenue in City Heights in January 2013. | Photo Credit: Dan Shelley
By Liam Dillon
Dan Shelley takes Avery, his half-Pomeranian half-spaniel, on 20-minute walks around his City Heights neighborhood. Last week, he brought a camera with him, too.
Shelley snapped pictures of the cracked, asphalt-covered, jagged sidewalks he encountered along the way and sent them to me.
“You look at some of these sidewalks and you’d think there were earthquakes here, just in City Heights,” Shelley said.
We’ve begun a series of posts about San Diego’s nonsensical sidewalk policies. So far we’ve learned it’s generally homeowners’ responsibility to repair and maintain sidewalks outside their properties, but the city’s legal problem if someone trips and falls outside that person’s house.
Shelley’s pictures allow us to kick off our next effort. We’ve started a Tumblr to document some of San Diego’s worst sidewalks. We’re calling it: The Stumblr.
Please send me pictures of your favorite messed up sidewalk and its location. I’ll post them on The Stumblr periodically. My email: liam@vosd.org. Reader response to my initial post on sidewalks has been fantastic, and I’m working through all your tips.
Next up in our exploration: Where the Sidewalk Ends.