One topic I haven’t really talked about is what to do while walking around the entrances of the community alleys, especially during the winter.
The question is: who shovels the portion of sidewalks that leads to alleys? I have spoken to the City via 311. I was advised that the City is responsible for those sections of the sidewalk. However, due to budget reasons, the City is unable to shovel the many alleyway sections.
During my conversation with 311, the biggest issue with the snow removal budget is that it’s set months before winter hits. Due to Calgary having thousands of Kilometres in Priority 1 roads, it is assumed that the snow removal budget shrinks quite quickly after a huge dump of snow (more than 5cm).
So, what does that mean for the residents of this great city?
To answer this question, it is always great to practice what works for each individual. However, as I am aware that there are also seniors, the best thing that we can do is to help each other out. I would also encourage everyone to email our illustrious Ward 8 councillor to share concerns in regard to public sidewalks (any sidewalk considered not a residential sidewalk). With Councillor Walcott’s help, maybe we can bring some sort of change in regard to these small sections of our sidewalks.
So, to give a much bigger picture of what Calgary’s snow removal crew deals with yearly at this time, here is a map of the P1 and P2, which usually takes up a big chunk of the budget that was explained earlier: https://maps.calgary.ca/SNICPriorityRoutes/.
To sum up, in terms of alleyway entrances, I would recommend that as residents, we help each other out and clear those sections. For the seniors of our awesome community, I encourage increased safety when going out for walks. Step into the alley, if you can, then continue on your walks.
I would like to thank Christine Osborne, a long-time resident of Killarney-Glengarry, for suggesting this topic.
More on this topic to come in future editions.
