Shoveling holdouts face $50 fine in Philly

 A sidewalk is not shoveled in South Philadelphia Thursday morning. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

A sidewalk is not shoveled in South Philadelphia Thursday morning. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)

Shoveling, salting, scraping. Around the region, most residents have cleared off their sidewalks of the foot of snow that fell Tuesday. But not everyone has complied with city law.

And, on Thursday, city officials began issuing $50 citations for unshoveled sidewalks.

You’ve spent a bunch of time shoveling and salting a nice path in front of your house. And you look down the block to see that other parts of the sidewalk are still full of snow. It’s annoying, it’s dangerous, and it’s illegal.

Philadelphia property owners are required to clear a sidewalk path that’s at least 36 inches wide within six hours after the snow fall stops, said Donald Carlton, deputy streets commissioner.

  • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

“If we see that there’s an effort and there’s no danger to passers-by, we won’t write the citation,” Carlton said. “We encourage 36 inches, we want it to be 36 inches, but if it’s slightly less or there may be some small amounts of ice or snow on the sidewalk, we won’t write the citation.”

After this week’s storm, Carlton said, the city held off on issuing tickets because of the extreme cold.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal