Sidewalk ordinance a slippery slope

In these times of budgetary shortfalls, you'd think Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson would be singing, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow," and not just to fill the city's chuckholes.

Granted, he's charged with removing snow on most Indianapolis streets, which is no easy task, but he could be singing in the flurries rather than ever fretting them.

Snows are potential cash cows for his financially bootstrapped administration. According to an Indianapolis ordinance, businesses and residents must clear their sidewalks of snows or face a $50 fine.

If my eastside Indy neighborhood is any indication, its broken neglected sidewalks are worth their weight in rock salt. After our last big snow, Indianapolis police officers could have trudged house to house, passing out $50 tickets to most of my neighbors.

Which they didn't, thank goodness, but they legally could have. I can't think of a better extortion racket than taking advantage of people - especially elderly, out-of-shape and absent people - when the weather is really miserable ... but that's what the ordinance is set up to do. Its
intention to clear sidewalks is noble, but its potential for abuse is enormous.

For example, the police can net twice the return per ticket than they do on seat-belt violations and with much less effort. How hard can it be to walk up and down streets through snow and to leave a demand notice at every sitting duck's gate?

I'm glad that Mayor Peterson hasn't stooped to use such measures to raise revenue, although he can. There are better uses for police officers than policing snow on our sidewalks. Plus, this ordinance affects older and unhealthy people disproportional to healthy ones.

Indianapolis' city-county council would be smart to comb its code books of both under- and un-enforced ordinances, such as this one. I've lived in Indianapolis most of my fifty years, but until recently had never heard of the city's sidewalk rules. Laws and ordinances that aren't worth enforcing and can't be enforced uniformly should be struck.

It goes without saying, also, that police officers should not have discretion over which laws and ordinances to enforce. Most of the residents on my block were clearly in violation of the sidewalk ordinance, but the law went un-enforced. If the city can't or won't enforce its own written laws,
then there are too many laws.

Indianapolis' sidewalk ordinance is a perfect example of the futility of using statutes and ordinances to impose duties on our neighbors. This is a case where the city's legislature has enacted a rule that few people even know about and which its own administrators don't enforce. The city-county
council should clean house of all such ill-advised and unenforceable attempts to impose duties on people.

Ironically, I spent an invigorating hour clearing my sidewalks before I read about the city's sidewalk ordinance. I was motivated by the safety of my postman, of the blind guy down the street, and of the Hispanic kids at the bus stop in front of my house - not to mention my pride. I was not
motivated by some obligation that my local legislature said I owed them.

As well, I imagine most companies clear snow in front of their businesses for commercial reasons, and not because government tells them to.

Which suggests that government would do us all more good if it stopped imposing often unknown and unenforceable duties, and merely used the media to encourage us to be better neighbors.

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