The Perils of Being a Pedestrian in Calgary

Calgary has always been and will always be a car-centric city. It was built for cars – not pedestrians, sort of like Los Angeles. They have sidewalks in Los Angeles for pedestrians, but there is one thing they don’t have: snow. It snows in Calgary. A lot of people don’t know that and they live there. I can’t think of another reason why a lot of people in Calgary don’t clear the snow and ice from their sidewalks.

Maybe they all have broken arms and legs. Maybe they’re blind. Maybe they’re stupid. Maybe they’re too busy on their computers buying crap from Ebay and Amazon while their lazy, entitled kids lounge on their beds in a contorted position that would make a chiropractor have nightmares, yip yapping on their smart phones about nothing while updating their Facebook page regarding the latest school yard gossip to fill their mundane lives. That has to be it. I can’t think of another reason.

Yes, now that everyone is safe in their houses, locked away from the bad, cold world, segregated from each other, let’s all ignore the hazardous, potentially life-threatening situation that is our unshovelled (yeah, I’m the one who invented that word and will submit it to Webster’s) sidewalk. Let’s leave it unshovelled so that it becomes hard-packed, rutted and an obstruction. Let’s continue to leave it unshovelled so that it slowly melts and turns completely to ice – now an even bigger hazard and life-threatening situation. Let’s NOT put salt or sand on it and completely ignore it.

One of these days, your complete disregard and lack of respect for your fellow human beings (a lot of whom are your neighbours and friends), will come back to haunt you. The little old lady down the street who uses your sidewalk to get from her house to point B will slip and fall on your recklessly maintained, unsafe sidewalk. She may break her arm, her leg, her hip. She may crack her head on the sidewalk and die. Are you willing to let that happen? If you are, you need serious help. I suggest you sell your house now and move your family into a mental institution, safe away from the rest of us.

Where I came from (the area and the time), kids did chores. They worked in and around the house and got an allowance for doing things like shovelling the snow. Not once have I ever seen kids out shovelling snow in ANY community in this city – EVER. Where are they? Like I said before, locked inside the house staring at their smart phones – either by choice since kids run roughshod over their parents these days or by force because the parents are too much in fear that they’ll be stolen away by all the bad people in the world that they think live on their street.

It’s always the adults who do the shovelling. Well, guess what? You aren’t very good at it because it’s not being done. I don’t care if you’re too busy or run off your feet. You have a responsibility as a homeowner (and a human being) to make sure that there are no hazards on your sidewalk – which by the way I know that you don’t own – the city owns it. As a homeowner with a piece of land adjacent to a city sidewalk, you essentially lease it from the city for as long as you own the property.

That little old lady, your neighbours, the paper boy, canvassers, meter readers, delivery persons, runners, kids in strollers – they are all at risk of injury because of your negligence. I think it would be quite a sad day for you if one of them slipped, fell, broke bones or killed themselves in front of your house on your unshovelled sidewalk. I think it would be quite funny if their relatives sued you and they suddenly owned your house. Funny thing about that isn’t it? Hope you have some good insurance. Better yet, clear the ice and snow from your sidewalk to begin with. It takes 5 minutes out of your alleged busy day.