Updated 3/1/2021 6:33 AM
February's storms and arctic temperatures pitched suburban homeowners, particularly those without snowblowers, into a primitive struggle against the elements to clear sidewalks.
The continued onslaught of heavy, back-straining snow was hard enough to tackle. When a deep freeze solidified it, many people surrendered their shovels in defeat.
The result left sidewalks covered with snowdrifts in neighborhoods and along busy streets. Some pedestrians could be seen walking on busy roads rather than wading through sidewalk snow, a risky strategy at best.
Is there a better way to keep sidewalks clean when weather makes it challenging?
That's a tough one, experts said. A focus on plowing streets rather than sidewalks in the suburbs and a patchwork of policies regarding who's responsible for shoveling allow situations like the February sidewalk debacle to occur.