Snow Rules

They have sidewalks everywhere here. I don't think I have ever seen a house that didn't have a sidewalk in front of it. Even in the smallest towns, they have sidewalks to walk on. When we first moved here, and it snowed, we had no idea that it was our legal responsibility to keep the sidewalk in front of our house clear .We also are required to put salt or dirt down to prevent people from slipping. Today, it just seems normal, but as I was out shoveling the sidewalk this morning, I thought about this law. It would be almost impossible to have the side walks cleared by the city. There are sooo many sidewalks, and there is no way the job could be done before the commuters (bikers, walkers, students etc) started their trek in the morning on the sidewalks. It makes sense to require the citizens to perform this task. The problem though, comes from the situations that don't make it so easy to clean the sidewalks from snow. Examples being; elderly people, when you are on vacation, if you are at work all day and the snow is accumulating outside your house. The nice thing is that neighbors help neighbors, and it all seems to work out. I think it is a nice thing to require citizens to do simple things for the common good - not a bad idea at all (in my opinion :-))