Still Hoping to Hear Answers on the NE 2 Sidewalk
Curious as to whether anyone sees this sidewalk as a source of pride for our city’s water department. Two weeks ago I posed the following questions to Debbie Regan with the city’s water utilities department, which required this grate construction blocking this sidewalk:
1. What is the risk of lowering the grate (an inch or so) so that it is flush with the sidewalk and doesn’t impede pedestrian traffic? Is it really a life or death situation if the grate is lowered?
2. How big of a deal would it be to move the water meter if lowering the grate is unacceptable?
3. Regardless of expense, would this sort of sidewalk impediment be accepted in front of Devon tower? The Skirvin hotel? City Hall? The mayor’s house? The homes of Larry Nichols, Aubrey McClendon, Tom Ward or other prominent city leaders? Would you really tell them, “tough, it’s too expensive to move?”
HERE’S A BONUS QUESTION:
4. What does this sort of sidewalk arrangement say about Oklahoma City’s engineering standards? What does it say about the Oklahoma City Water/Waste Water Utilities Department? What does it say about its responsibility to provide residents with sidewalks that are as safe and free of barriers as streets are for cars? Or are we back to treating pedestrian access as an afterthought to vehicular access?
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Comments
The same questions should be posed to city council. (Along with your photo) After all they are the ones that are suppose to be giving direction to city staff.
I’m really glad you’re staying on this, Steve. Those who suggest this is a trivial issue miss a key point: the fact that this has been allowed to happen (and the unwillingness of the City to take “ownership” of the problem) is symptomatic of a much deeper problem within the City.
Whatever that management problem is, it is best to root it out now and fix it, rather than waiting until it results in a much more serious, costly screw-up by the City on a larger project.
The fact that Ms. Regan has yet to provide any sort of credible response is highly troubling; have you tried escalating this to the City Manager yet? Surely, Mr. Couch has to be aware of this…. truly amazing that nothing has been done and no answers have been provided.
Surely this isn’t a city standard or else you would see them at other places. This has to be a construction mistake. If it is, the contractor should fix.
At least there IS a sidewalk in that part of town!