Cara Cottingham walks along the deteriorating sidewalk on Fairmount Avenue between East Fourth Plain Avenue and East 20th Street, where part of the sidewalk has deteriorated to a point where people in wheelchairs can't use them. (Photos by Ariane Kunze/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
When Cara Cottingham walks down one particular stretch of Fairmount Avenue, she regularly sees things that alarm her.
On Fairmount, between East Fourth Plain Boulevard and East 20th Street, which runs adjacent to a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, a line of tree plantings have partially sunken the pavers. The planters are in the middle of the sidewalk, and on the side with the sinking bricks — the side farther from the street — there’s not a lot of room for pedestrians to safely walk.
Cottingham has seen people nearly roll ankles navigating that stretch of sidewalk. She’s seen people with wheelchairs who don’t fit on the sidewalk and have to go in the street to get down Fairmount. If there’s a car parked on that part of the street, it sends people in the middle of the road.
“The curbs are set up to let wheelchairs on there,” she said. “Once you go up just that strip, it’s really bad, and it’s kind of out of sight. For the people who live in the neighborhood, it’s a risk. You can’t even take a grocery cart through there.”
Cottingham also is worried about that stretch of sidewalk because it is near Vancouver Public Schools’ Gateway to Adult Transition Education, a program where 18- to 21-year-olds with developmental disabilities get help with life and workplace skills.
“There’s no sidewalk on the other side of the street,” she said. “This is the only option. People shouldn’t be limited.”
Cottingham said she alerted the city of Vancouver and was told others have filed complaints about the sidewalk, too. She first noticed the problem area in June, and not much has been done since then.
“It’s not sustainable, and they’re not fixing it,” Cottingham said. “When I called the city, they put my complaint in a stack.”
Sometime this summer, some orange tape went up over stretches of the sunken bricks. Leslee Wright, senior manager of corporate communications with Wal-Mart, said the company put up tape to warn pedestrians about the bricks. She couldn’t confirm if the tape currently on that stretch of sidewalk is the same tape or if someone else replaced it. A representative from the city of Vancouver said the city isn’t responsible for putting up the tape.
It’s also not up to the city to fix the sidewalks, according to Vancouver Public Works spokeswoman Loretta Callahan.
“Property owners are required to maintain the sidewalks abutting their properties, keeping these walkways free from overgrown vegetation and other obstructions that impede or impact pedestrian movement,” she wrote in an email. “Should the sidewalk surface need repair, property owners must get a permit and adhere to regulations covering work in the public right of way.”
When the city receives a complaint about an area, city staff visit the site to evaluate it. If the staffer determines there is a hazardous situation, the city sends the property owner a letter advising of the need to correct the issue. As for the Fairmount sidewalks, the city started fielding complaints about the area a few years ago.
“The city received complaints about the paver portions of the sidewalks following installation as part of the development project in 2013,” Callahan wrote. “These were fixed twice by the contractor at city’s request, with the last repair completed in 2015.”
She added that the city has received complaints since then and sent staff out to visit the site.
The current problem is a result of pavers settling since that time, Callahan wrote. With some pavers, there’s a slight dip down right next to the tree. With others, there are more drastic drops, where the bricks don’t slope down as much as drop down a few inches suddenly. Some of the planters have loose bricks, as well.
Callahan wrote that city staff has been out to the property as recently as Nov. 16 and will send Wal-Mart a letter asking that the identified problems be corrected and providing information about the necessary steps to getting everything fixed. Wright said the store hadn’t received a letter as of Nov. 17 and will look to fix the issue.
“We take the safety of everyone in this area seriously,” Wright wrote in an email. “We’re reaching out to the city to determine what needs to be done.”
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