Incentive is latest city effort in wake of large injury payouts
Replacing and repairing a sidewalk, however, costs an average of $18 to $25 per square foot, depending if there is a tree, he said.
The reason some neighborhoods have sidewalks and others don’t is related to when the area was originally developed, said Bruce Appleyard, an urban planning professor at San Diego State University.
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“Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, developers would argue away the need for sidewalks . it was an added cost,” Appleyard said, adding that it was a practice often seen after World War II.
Therefore it’s not unusual to see communities with discontinuous sidewalks, he said, which creates greater dependency on cars and impacts people’s well-being. It can also affect property values, he said.