I was told that sidewalks were the property owner's responsibilty and the city does not get involved. Is that your understanding?

That is also my understanding. We did a survey of the top 20 cities by population and found that they all had similarly ordinances. If you live in places with snow, property owners are also required to clear the snow and there are heavy fines per day for noncompliance.

The problem is that Houston does not compel the owner to fix the sidewalk like they should. By refusing to do this they become liable for any injuries that occur. This is what happened to Atlanta recently (see http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/18441000/city-to-pay-3m-to-settle-lawsuit-over-sidewalk-accident).

It is really a catch 22 for politicians. For many administrations they City ignored sidewalks and enforcement and now it is hard to tell property owners to fix their sidewalks per the law. The reality is that people are moving to so called walkable neighborhoods to be close to services and want to walk. The population is getting older. Injuries will increase and lawsuits will be more common.

Case Closed
Service Request Resolved
property owners responsibility

Montrose Dad,

I was hoping this would actually get addressed by COH. It would be great if COH took ownership of sidewalk reapirs, but that is probably pretty expensive given how bad a lot of our sidewalks are. See, I'm not unreasonable.

In a previous post on another incident, I stated that potential lawsuits will prob. drive action in the community once people start going that route. It's a shame it has to come to that.

City needs to fine property owner. We are responsible for not dumping, if we do it, we get a fine.

G Sea--this is the case with all major US cities. The only difference is that Houston does not enforce the law and notify owners that their sidewalks need to be repaired. I did Freedom of Information request on number of notifications sent in the last ten years. The answer was zero. I am in the process of doing this for Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. I just did a Freedom of Information request for pedestrian death and injury counts. I have the data, but have yet to break it down by area. The numbers for Houston are very high. I'd like to compare them with our assault and murder rates. Suffice it to say that I don't know many neighbors who have been a victims of violent crime, but I know many who have been injured or killed because of a sidewalk accident. What got me started on this project was having to pull an elderly gentleman off the street after he fell because of a broken sidewalk. He busted his head and broke his hip. He later died from complications.