Sidewalks

Ferndale wants to introduce you to its new look, and you are invited to view it close up. What better way than on foot!The public is invited to join County Executive Robert R. Neall and the Ferndale community for an "Old Fashioned Sidewalk Stroll" from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The opening ceremonies, celebrating the completion of the Ferndale Streetscape, will take place at 10:15 a.m. in front of the Ferndale Senior Center, 7205 Baltimore & Annapolis Blvd.Located along the Ferndale business corridor (from the old Post Office to Wellham Avenue)

Members of the Annapolis city council are looking into repealing a little-known new law requiring all city residents to pay a sidewalk-repair fee after receiving an avalanche of criticism from people - including those without sidewalks - who just got their bills in the mail. The $25 fee per household will allow the city to take over responsibility for maintaining the city's sidewalks. Property owners are supposed to repair and replace sidewalks at their own cost, said city spokesman Ray Weaver.

Twenty-five dollars. It's not even half a tank of gas, less than the cost of a ticket to Six Flags, maybe a dozen crabs. But it's enough to drive Annapolis citizens to flood City Hall and city council representatives with furious calls and e-mails over the new fee to fund sidewalk maintenance and repairs - and enough to cause two aldermen to say they will introduce legislation Monday to suspend enforcement of the fee. The bills, which charge owners of...

Ask an urban planner to define the cradle of civilization, and thoughts drift to that innocuous but vital ribbon of concrete, the sidewalk. "Lowly, unpurposeful and random as they appear, sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a city's wealth of public life may grow," Jane Jacobs wrote in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities. So it was not surprising that earlier this winter, the city of San Francisco became the first municipality in the country to ban the Segway - the $4,950 self-balancing scooter that resembles a balletic wheeled pogo stick - from the city's sidewalks.

Mount Airy, Taneytown, Union Bridge and Carroll County are lining up to claim shares of a little-used fund that pays half the cost of building sidewalks.The State Highway Administration allocated Carroll County $125,000 in 1995 under a three-year program to finance construction of sidewalks along state roads and in urban revitalization districts.Mount Airy received $12,750 last year for sidewalks in front of a microbrewery in the town's Main Street business district, which leaves the county's fund entering its third fiscal year with about $112,000 left, according to Howard Noll, county engineering bureau chief.

The Annapolis city council eliminated a controversial fee to maintain the city's sidewalks and approved refunds to the thousands of residents who paid it. How the city will maintain its 120 miles of sidewalks is unknown. Legislation approved at the council meeting called for more study of the issue. The council passed the fee - $25 for individual property owners and $125 for business owners - last year with little fanfare. But when residents received the bills last month, residents made clear their disdain for the fee, calling and e-mailing members of the council and speaking out at meetings.

To watch Manny Nissel walking home from synagogue is to understand why many Orthodox Jews walk two by two along Park Heights Avenue on Saturday mornings.There he is, holding the hand of a child who is on his left. On his right, a friend from Philadelphia gingerly tiptoes along the curb, then steps into the roadway at the sight of a street sign.Four feet wide, the sidewalk can barely accommodate two grown men and a boy."In Memphis, you can go jogging without knocking into the street lamps," said the 30-year-old visitor, as he accompanied a cousin home after morning services at the Agudah of Baltimore.

The State Highway Administration, with the help of Westminster and Western Maryland College, recently completed renovating an area on Maryland Route 32 between Pennsylvania Avenue and New Windsor Road. The renovation along Route 32, or Main Street, included resurfacing the road, replacing curbs and gutters, and rebuilding sidewalks to include concrete imprinted with V-shaped designs and red brick. Project coordinators said they are especially happy with the new sidewalks because they add aesthetic value to the area while keeping the town's historic flavor.

After nearly 18 months, Sykesville has completed roads, sidewalks and other work at Carroll Fields, projects the subdivision's developer failed to do.The Town Council voted to release the remainder -- about $80,000 -- of the original bond money posted by B&H Investments of Eldersburg, developer of the 60-home subdivision on Second Avenue.The release, however, depends on a final inspection. A portion of the money must also be reserved for a one-year maintenance agreement in case any problems occur.

The streets of Charm City will blossom with jackhammers this spring as Baltimore begins an $18 million project to install brick sidewalks, plant trees, raise antique-style lamps, place benches and grow flowers downtown. The beautification effort by the city and a group of downtown property owners, expected to take more than five years, is designed to convince people that the city is a lovely place to stroll and shop. "This is not just window dressing," said Michelle Whelley, interim president of the nonprofit Downtown Partnership.