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Portland

I Got a Letter from the Government

07.22.08 | Comment?

I can’t roll up the sidewalk outside my house and take it indoors, and the city considers it part of the street system, and outside of my property.  Yet I am legally responsible for its upkeep and repair.  I suppose it’s a more direct form of taxation for infrastructure maintenance than we normally see, and I’m not opposed to it.  The section at the base of our sidewalk is cracked and tilted and I certainly don’t want someone to trip there.

The city sidewalk inspectors have been all through our neighborhood and the result can be seen in the outbreak of sidewalk repair contractors following behind.  In our case I think it’s the linden tree just over our property line that’s caused our damage, but that doesn’t seem to be a valid reason for appeal.  I guess we’ll lose this particular memento of the earliest days of our neighborhood:

Thank you, S Card, for installing sidewalks that have lasted most of a century.  It would be interesting to find a picture of our street from 1908, or better yet from 1915, when our house was built.

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