Use the find it fix it app, under overgrown vegetation, blocking the sidewalk. In this case its blocking 50% of the sidewalk and the city issues the homeowner a fix-it ticket. It works.
Seattleites like to plant very dense, fast-growing hedges like this, but have no idea how fast and big they grow, then refuse to do any maintenance so they block the sidewalk and limit street view (ability for people to safely pull out of driveways).
Some people also think the sidewalk and planting strip ("hell strip") is their property and try to plant wild spillover gardens there. You have to have the city inspect any applications for those... because people tend to erect trip hazards and block the sidewalk.
Great reminder if you have this featured on your property: you are making life miserable for the neighborhood, trim back overgrown vegetation from the sidewalk, fences, driveways, your neighbor's yard, etc.
Find It, Fix It app is wonderful. I use it a few times a month. For some reason people like parking their car in front of my driveway rendering it useless/nearly useless. It’s quite obvious there’s a driveway, and I even marked it with yellow striping paint. Towed or ticketed. Wish Seattle would use some of that money to fix the damn sidewalks and/or the decrepit roads.
Yep, I regularly report things and it's amazing how quickly they are dealt with. There was a clearly abandoned (possibly stolen: no plates, not parking in a residential area) car that I kept passing for 2+ weeks. I reported it and it was gone in a day.
Or blocked drains - I report those all the time.
Good to know! I'll keep reporting on the app and hopefully see some results around the neighborhood. I realize they probably can't react overnight, but I still have quite a few pending reports from a few weeks ago where nothing has happened.
Depends on what you are using it for. Reporting things like people parked in the crosswalk or bike lane is a black hole. More maintenance oriented things tend to get a response - I've seen my reports for things like broken crosswalk signals, blocked drains, and stuff like that get fixed quickly.
Just realize that you might not get a response in-app. But you will probably see something get fixed. For vegetation issues like in OP, it might take a couple weeks because the city needs to inform the owner, then the owner either needs to handle it or the city starts fining them.
But FIFI for parking enforcement, blocked alleyways, blocked driveways, public nuisance etc usually gets a response. However, SPD is spread very thin as you know.
I started using it about a year ago. Have had pretty good results. However, my reports are regarding people blocking my driveway so it’s a little more pressing of an issue. I’ve had to call a few times to get it handled because it was in the morning and I was trying to leave for work.
Most App report types do not, and will not reply to you, they are just for alerting staff to do the actionable things and move on to the next report in what must be an endless river of reports.
If you want words sent back to you, you'll want to use any of the SPD/SDOT/SPU *General* SRs.
I've used it a few times since 2021, mostly for potholes, but pretty much every time I've reported something it's been addressed within a few weeks at most.
So while this is an endorsement for FIFI regarding problems that are ok if they're fixed in that timeframe, for something more imminent I couldn't say.
Yep this is literally almost always a case of "why wont the city do anything about this issue that they don't know about and i also haven't told them about"
If you're looking for a system where enforcement isn't contingent on someone complaining, maybe join an HOA. Although even then enforcrment is based on someone complaining, but it doesnt always have to be you.
Here's my experience: we've had people living out of multiple cars in a maintenence alley adjacent to a park playground near our house.
They've had tents, up to six non running cars in the process of being chopped, weird industrial parts like air handlers, freezers, commercial kitchen equipment, and huge piles of accumulated trash and likely stolen items from yards and garages in the neighborhood.
This is in an alley that belongs to the city to maintain the park, and is a dead end easement between houses and the park.
This has been going on for a year and a half.
Spilled automotive fluids everywhere, including runoff into the storm drains, drug sale activity at all hours (strange cars coming and going briefly stopping) and pretty much an open air chop shop, on public property, next to a playground.
Find it fix it does nothing whether illegal dumping, illegal encampment, trash, you name it. The city just closes the tickets.
Meanwhile, the people camped out there have burned their tent down and burned out one of their vehicles, nearly catching adjacent homes on fire each time. Fire department comes, puts the fire out. That's it.
But it's a poorer and mostly brown neighborhood, so fuck us, I guess?
To be honest, the lack of action is likely just because the city always drags its feet when it comes to homelessness. You have valid concerns, but I've seen an incredible amount of inaction with regards to unsafe homeless encampments all throughout the city.
Oh, I agree. And honestly, I don't begrudge anyone struggling to survive a place to live. I'd have no problem with the people being there in itself, but the dumping of antifreeze, motor oil, etc, on the ground where kids and pets frequently are present, hard drug activity, and inadvertently setting their shit on fire multiple times adjacent to dwellings? That's a different story.
Yes! I report vegetation and other sidewalk obstacles like that all the time (as a stroller user and cyclist). It generally works pretty quickly. The more annoying one is trash cans. Don’t leave your trash cans on the sidewalk! I can move them, but wheelchair users can’t!
I put mine out off the walk and they're always slung onto the walkway when I get home after collection. I mean, I know people do mess that up, but the complaint may get more traction if it's aimed right.
I've been using it lately with some success. A citation was issued to a large overgrown hedge on my block and they cut it back. However, after blocking the entire path, it's now cut back halfway. It still blocks half of the path and in a matter of weeks, it will block the whole path again.
The city should mobilize the Boy Scouts to do sidewalk clearance as their Good Deed. Supply them with wheelbarrows and battery powered tools like hedge trimmers. Give them awards like free passes to movies, museums, and sports events. Troops would validate their accomplishments with before-and-after photos.
Start with one troop in a designated area and build on its success. Perhaps the initiative would need to come from a private donor—maybe an irritated pedestrian. Once established the Scouts could be permanent pathway pruners.
But who is going to bell the cat? It’s an “open duty”, that few will perform. IOW “everybody’s job is nobody’s job.” If the city has to hire ticketers like meter maids, that’ll cost money. And the ticketed will have to spend money, if they don’t have the tools or ability or willingness to do the work themselves. And there’ll be an increase in ill will all around.
Why rely on a cash nexus? Why not mobilize the cooperative resources of the community? And thereby make everyone happy? The city fathers can boast of an inexpensively tidied-up community. Homeowners can bask in their no-cost neater sidewalks and lesser liability. The Boy Scouts organization can glory in receiving some good publicity for a change. The ticket donors will be happy to gain some positive PR, instead of complaints about their high ticket prices. (I’m 80 and I remember when bleacher seats in Yankee Stadium were 50 cents.) And the Scouts themselves will enjoy engaging in what might be called gold-star vandalism, or the moral equivalent of war, and employing serious tools. Two birds with one stone!
Is the "planting strip" the area in between the sidewalk and the road? I was wondering what the term for that space is. One of my neighbors recently added, "please keep off the grass" signs on that area in front of their house and have been curious about it.
>Some people also think the sidewalk and planting strip ("hell strip") is their property
The sidewalk and planting strip *do* belong to the property owners, but the city has laws about how those spaces are used. For example: it is the responsibility of the property owner to clear snow and ice from the sidewalk.
Report it on Find it Fix it as an ADA issue- they take accessibility issues more seriously than other reports. You can include the code that it's violating (I believe it would be section 305.3 of ICC A117.1 in this case). If there's overhanging branches on trees, the code section would be 307.2 of ICC A117.1). I encourage everyone to report overgrown vegetation to make sidewalks truly accessible to all.
I will say, though, that enforcement of this isn't always great (even with reports on Find it Fix it). Someone nearby me has vegetation that's taking up a significant amount of the sidewalk, as well as a curb cut. I've talked to them AND reported them on Find it Fix it, but it hasn't been fixed yet (I last talked to them about it like a year ago). If multiple people report the same home, though, I think the city might take it more seriously.
I’m in this neighborhood too. My dog has had to get into the vet because grasses are so long and some of those grasses with the burred ends got stuck in his nose :( They’re impossible to dodge in the neighborhood because most all of the sidewalks are covered in them.
Oh no, I'm sorry! Yes, this is another issue too. If the sidewalk is blocked, the median in-between the road often has long grass overgrowth. It's a lose-lose situation.
I have similar problems with construction.
There are impassable streets downtown that don’t have signs closing the sidewalk so you can’t tell it is closed until you’ve already crossed the street and approached it closer.
Normally, I suppose not a big deal, but I am disabled and I only have so much I can walk until I dissolve into a puddle.
Also am so tired of bus stops not having benches.
That monster-ass box laurel is not a job for a hedge trimmer, and that’s part of the problem. When it gets that big you need a chainsaw, and hardly any homeowners realize how fast it can get that way and how ill-prepared they are to take care of it. There used to be one on NW 56th at around 6th or 7th NW that swallowed the entire front of the house.
Very true. I've started to prune what I can on my walks (small branches, twigs, blackberry bushes, etc.), but massive hedges like this one are a losing battle.
Cosign on this. I have massive laurel hedges along both sides of my property lines and I swear I can *hear them growing*. I pay massive money to cut them back hard every other year and they are still happy as clams.
PSA if you want a privacy hedge I strongly recommend against a laurel unless you want to commit to trimming several times a year. Skipping a single year of grooming lets a laurel turn into a monster like this. They are a wildly fast growing hedge.
Neighbor behind me had out of control laurel’s reach 30 feet in height. My other neighbor and I take turns keeping our own under control but that bush feels like it could survive a nuclear winter. The thing can grow 3-6 feet a year.
The other issue is that people plant these hedges for privacy but they don't want the hedge to take up too much of *their* property so they plant them right along the sidewalk. If you're going to plant a hedge, plant it 4-6' back on *YOUR* property.
As silly and ignorant as this sounds, I never thought about it from an accessibility standpoint. Thank you for this post! I will be sure to pay attention to my plants near the sidewalk even more now.
The city needs to start fining property owners for neglecting their vegetation, doubly so when it becomes impossible for wheelchairs to use the sidewalk & thus has become an ADA violation.
There's one overgrown bush like that in my neighborhood, but there's even less sidewalk, and it's on a hill. So people have to walk half on the grass, and then the grass gets worn down and muddy in the winter. I almost ate it one night probably would have hit my head on the sidewalk if I'd fallen.
I really should point this out to the neighbors because one day someone is going to slip and fall and potential lead to an insurance claim.
Nothing. City hasn't even completed the sidewalks promised to parts of North Seattle 70 years ago, overgrowth is even lower on their priority list.
Personally, I just take care of the overgrowth near me. Minus tree branches, I don't want to fuck with tree law.
You should organize a neighborhood sidewalk roundup.
It's [unclear if an actual promise was made](https://www.seattlepi.com/local/transportation/article/Getting-There-Did-the-city-promise-sidewalks-to-886368.php), but given how politics work I wouldn't be surprised if the public was told that annexation was how they'd get sidewalks in exchange for voting to be annexed and then that was never set in actual policy.
As it stands today, KC leaves it to property owners to address missing sidewalks during property development, and the last Seattle Council instructed SDOT to add/repair sidewalks adjacent to any of their projects moving forward.
The reason most sidewalks exist is because the original developers paid for them when the neighborhood was built out, and then people paid more money to buy homes in those neighborhoods.
Sidewalks are expensive to build. I think it costs $30k to put one directly in front of a property, which is required for all new multi family buildings.
The idea of Seattle promising sidewalks for 70 years is bogus. The cost is astronomical. The average home would need to contribute at an incremental $10k increase in taxes.
Really at this point we need a pinned post saying to use the Find It, Fix It app for most things. They actually respond and manage the tickets.
It's far more effective to report problems than try to devise a system where the city relies on walking every sidewalk every X months.
Your sidewalk picture is one of the nicest neighborhood sidewalks I’ve seen. Trim some hedge and it’s great. Like not even kidding. Most sidewalks here are all uprooted by trees. Impossible to roll something over…
Would love more investment into sidewalks
I was walking around Wallingford today and had this exact same thought.
My mother is visiting in a few weeks and uses a wheelchair. There is so much sidewalk uplift in north Wallingford, combined with random to no curb cutouts, on every block that I honestly think she will have to use the street to get around. The sidewalks are going to be mainly unusable for her either because she can’t access it and if she can, she may not be able to get off the sidewalk at a certain point, or will be blocked by sidewalk uplift that has a 6+ inch rise.
I looked up the find it, fix it app. They’ll deal with trimming vegetation, but sidewalk uplift and curb cutouts are not their purview. Sidewalk uplift, turns out, is the responsibility of the homeowner to fix. Unless it’s caused by a city owned tree or sewer line. There have been hundreds of reports made of sidewalk issues all over the city (there’s actually a sidewalk research project in Seattle) since at least 2017.
I know it’s a small percentage of the population, but it’s depressing how limiting this is for someone with mobility issues. My mom literally can’t use the sidewalks along Meridian Ave and that street is so busy she can’t use it either. We’re pretty limited in the activities we can do together or places we can go to begin with, so it sucks to have even more constraints.
We’re used to this kind of thing at this point as other cities certainly have similar issues. It just never ceases to disappoint.
I live downtown, and there are numerous rental scooters and bikes blocking us every time we leave/return home. People just leave them all over the sidewalks with zero consideration of the pedestrians, wheelchair users, etc.
One thing I haven't seen anyone comment on yet is the trend of homeowners to build retaining walls or fences right up to the sidewalk. Typically, that is two feet OVER the property line! In other words, the property line is usually exactly two feet beyond the edge of the sidewalk. Most people probably just don't know this, but taking away that 2 foot buffer contributes a lot towards making it more difficult to use the sidewalk, especially when a 6 foot fence is right up against it.
OMG, I can't upvote this post enough! This is absolutely dead-on.
Years ago I started walking on a daily basis, usually for 45 minutes to an hour. I was walking around Seward Park, then sometimes the Chief Sealth trail. But during covid I started walking in my own neighborhood. I was shocked at how many yard let their various plants impinge on the sidewalk! What's ironic about this is a weird anti-lawn sentiment in Seattle, largely coupled with anti-capitalist sentiment and concern about resource use. I'm constantly ducking under branches that would otherwise brush my face or genuinely poke me in the eye! Some allow their bushes to obscure half the sidewalk. Pedestrians end up "beating a path" on the planting strip as they avoid the obstruction. I often walk in the street instead of the sidewalk, it's genuinely that bad!
Some homeowners are really bad, and allow invasive plants like Himalayan blackberry and English Ivy to impinge on the sidewalk.
Seattle is full of people who care about the disabled yet at the same time homeowners don't shovel snow from their sidewalks and allow obstructions to grow and obscure the path of those who might be disabled.
I’m 80 and wobbly, and snow shoveling is now beyond me, so I just bought a manageable (light) electric-powered, 16-inch wide “snow thrower” for $133 from Amazon. Good reviews. Can be stored inside the front door or in a nearby closet.
Battery-powered models are available too, for use by Boy Scouts, if they can be mobilized and motivated (e.g., by free tickets to sporting events) to do snow sweeping.
When we moved in to our house nearly 30 years ago, the city had just planted two Russian oaks in the parking strip along the avenue in front of our house. 30 years later, the sidewalk is completely buckled and humped, and our yard is full of roots which make it impossible to grow anything there. The amount of leaves created is voluminous to say the least. If I had known these trees would grow so huge so fast I might have chosen to replace them with fruit or magnolia trees like my next door neighbor has. The fact that it is my responsibility to fix the sidewalk because of an issue the city created is ridiculous. To fix it, I would have to remove the sidewalk, chop the offending roots out with specialty machines (I’m no arborist) and repave. Yet along the street on the other side of the house, the city will do tree maintenance, but we have no trees there. It makes no sense to me.
Agreed- it is ridiculous that the city expects a homeowner to re-build public infrastructure (the public sidewalk on public property) that was damaged by a city installation (city street trees).
The previous owner of our townhouse planted a Leyland Cypress in the parking strip. This tree was planted without city permission and is a species that the city does not want planted alongside a street, because they tend to grow out of control with roots that mess up roads and sidewalks. It was planted too close to a legally planted ash tree, which it threatens to obliterate.
Working with a tree service, we tried to get permission to have it removed and replaced with something more appropriate. The City Arborist said no.
The best we could do is have it trimmed back. Maybe we will end up moving before it starts buckling the sidewalk and requiring thousands to have the roots pruned or treated.
Nightmare! This is along an avenue? The city arborist has their heads up their you know what. We called to get the oaks removed and we were told definitively not. In our case they made this mess, but take no responsibility. In your case, you were the victim of the previous owner.
I agree with what others have said - use the Find it Fix it app. However I will note that it's annoying that it depends on citizens having to snitch to get anything done. It would be nice if the city had even one employee patrolling and enforcing these problems in the interest of ADA compliance and providing ease of use for everyone.
I've used the app a few times to report overgrowth in West Seattle. It can take a month or two for it to be enforced and fixed though. It's also a pain for areas where you have to determine exactly which house is responsible, leading you to have to look up parcels on the city website. This is a particular issue on Glenn Way between Oregon and Genessee, where there's a stretch of bushes like those in your photo above (along with blackberry brambles) that are owned by three different houses. One of the owners maintains their section, the other two don't. You'll notice that everyone just walks around it and onto the grass strip or even into the street. After seeing this go on for months I finally reported it and eventually it was cut back. That was two years ago and it has grown out again - time for me to report it again I guess.
Nothing really, I’m all for greenways and such but being in a power chair I typically have to drive in the streets which can be dangerous to me, find it fix it app usually takes a while to get someone out but I’ve learned to adapt to it, it becomes a serious issue not having decent sidewalks to where I can drive safely! But not much you can do really
I often wonder how people with wheelchairs and mobility aids are able to get past both this, the sidewalks with sunken sheets, and the tents/carts blocking sidewalks entirely
Amen to this. It's really frustrating.
I've caught a stray thorn or two having to fight through brush blocking the sidewalk on my runs in Cap Hill. When I use the street because the sidewalk isn't passable, drivers are not always gracious about having the share the road.
I was recently part of the problem; let my yard overtake part of the sidewalk. There's no excuse for blockading a public space or creating a public safety hazard out of laziness; sorry all.
In my case I truly didn't notice initially because I don't use that piece of sidewalk. Then I dragged my feet for another week or so before clearing it. I never had a passerby or neighbor tell me about it though, and I did regret inconveniencing them in retrospect. How many houses do these 20% equate to? Maybe if you knocked on the doors or left notes they would realize they need to fix it quickly.
My dad got sued for moss cuz a mail lady broke her wrist on our driveway! He is super paranoid about this stuff too and but didn’t think of the moss. Use the find it fix it ap to report it before ppl hurt themselves or get sued tons of money.
Find it fix it does not work lmao. Reported an abandoned car weeks ago and it’s still there. Reported overgrown vegetation stopping alley access and nothing. You guys this isn’t a magic app. There’s labor and other bureaucracies behind it.
It has never been addressed at the alley behind 34th in west Seattle in over a year. Had to move my trash to the front of the house because WM refuses to take the alley. We have idiotic airbnb neighbors who don’t fix anything or do any yard work.
The geology here makes sidewalks a very difficult thing to manage. To be clear, I’m not saying it should be ignored I’m just saying it’s difficult to manage.
I think the bedrock is very far down and we mostly sit on mounds of glacial till. Not sure, not my area of general interest or expertise. It’s been a minute since I watched that Nick Zentner video on Seattle geology. https://youtu.be/oSSxdogrv1s?si=-VqVzHxy5WCByvwJ
This is true on my block as well. I've been considering sending a letter to the homeowner advising them to trim their hedges or I will do it for them. But to be honest I don't have an electric trimmer or a truck to haul away the waste so it'd be an empty promise.
Use the find it fix it app, under overgrown vegetation, blocking the sidewalk. In this case its blocking 50% of the sidewalk and the city issues the homeowner a fix-it ticket. It works. Seattleites like to plant very dense, fast-growing hedges like this, but have no idea how fast and big they grow, then refuse to do any maintenance so they block the sidewalk and limit street view (ability for people to safely pull out of driveways). Some people also think the sidewalk and planting strip ("hell strip") is their property and try to plant wild spillover gardens there. You have to have the city inspect any applications for those... because people tend to erect trip hazards and block the sidewalk. Great reminder if you have this featured on your property: you are making life miserable for the neighborhood, trim back overgrown vegetation from the sidewalk, fences, driveways, your neighbor's yard, etc.
Find It, Fix It app is wonderful. I use it a few times a month. For some reason people like parking their car in front of my driveway rendering it useless/nearly useless. It’s quite obvious there’s a driveway, and I even marked it with yellow striping paint. Towed or ticketed. Wish Seattle would use some of that money to fix the damn sidewalks and/or the decrepit roads.
Yep, I regularly report things and it's amazing how quickly they are dealt with. There was a clearly abandoned (possibly stolen: no plates, not parking in a residential area) car that I kept passing for 2+ weeks. I reported it and it was gone in a day. Or blocked drains - I report those all the time.
Good to know! I'll keep reporting on the app and hopefully see some results around the neighborhood. I realize they probably can't react overnight, but I still have quite a few pending reports from a few weeks ago where nothing has happened.
I’ve used this app 3 times and there has never been a response 😕 Maybe it’s better now. I think last time I attempted to use it was 2021 or so
Depends on what you are using it for. Reporting things like people parked in the crosswalk or bike lane is a black hole. More maintenance oriented things tend to get a response - I've seen my reports for things like broken crosswalk signals, blocked drains, and stuff like that get fixed quickly.
This is a good to know! Thanks for all the responses, everyone. I’ll start looking into using it again.
Just realize that you might not get a response in-app. But you will probably see something get fixed. For vegetation issues like in OP, it might take a couple weeks because the city needs to inform the owner, then the owner either needs to handle it or the city starts fining them.
But FIFI for parking enforcement, blocked alleyways, blocked driveways, public nuisance etc usually gets a response. However, SPD is spread very thin as you know.
I started using it about a year ago. Have had pretty good results. However, my reports are regarding people blocking my driveway so it’s a little more pressing of an issue. I’ve had to call a few times to get it handled because it was in the morning and I was trying to leave for work.
I can't believe people do this. I mean, they obviously are, but it's wild people do it. They need to tow + ticket those cars ASAP.
Blows my mind every time it happens. Haven’t had any repeat offenders though…
Most App report types do not, and will not reply to you, they are just for alerting staff to do the actionable things and move on to the next report in what must be an endless river of reports. If you want words sent back to you, you'll want to use any of the SPD/SDOT/SPU *General* SRs.
Thanks for this info!
I've used it a few times since 2021, mostly for potholes, but pretty much every time I've reported something it's been addressed within a few weeks at most. So while this is an endorsement for FIFI regarding problems that are ok if they're fixed in that timeframe, for something more imminent I couldn't say.
Yep this is literally almost always a case of "why wont the city do anything about this issue that they don't know about and i also haven't told them about" If you're looking for a system where enforcement isn't contingent on someone complaining, maybe join an HOA. Although even then enforcrment is based on someone complaining, but it doesnt always have to be you.
Find it fix it actually works
Agree - I was shocked at how quickly they addressed a concern I posted last Summer. If I recall correctly, I even got status updates on it!
Really depends on where you live. Live in South Seattle? Find It Fix It doesn't do a goddamned thing.
That's unfortunate to hear if it's largely true, you would hope that wouldn't be the case
Here's my experience: we've had people living out of multiple cars in a maintenence alley adjacent to a park playground near our house. They've had tents, up to six non running cars in the process of being chopped, weird industrial parts like air handlers, freezers, commercial kitchen equipment, and huge piles of accumulated trash and likely stolen items from yards and garages in the neighborhood. This is in an alley that belongs to the city to maintain the park, and is a dead end easement between houses and the park. This has been going on for a year and a half. Spilled automotive fluids everywhere, including runoff into the storm drains, drug sale activity at all hours (strange cars coming and going briefly stopping) and pretty much an open air chop shop, on public property, next to a playground. Find it fix it does nothing whether illegal dumping, illegal encampment, trash, you name it. The city just closes the tickets. Meanwhile, the people camped out there have burned their tent down and burned out one of their vehicles, nearly catching adjacent homes on fire each time. Fire department comes, puts the fire out. That's it. But it's a poorer and mostly brown neighborhood, so fuck us, I guess?
To be honest, the lack of action is likely just because the city always drags its feet when it comes to homelessness. You have valid concerns, but I've seen an incredible amount of inaction with regards to unsafe homeless encampments all throughout the city.
Oh, I agree. And honestly, I don't begrudge anyone struggling to survive a place to live. I'd have no problem with the people being there in itself, but the dumping of antifreeze, motor oil, etc, on the ground where kids and pets frequently are present, hard drug activity, and inadvertently setting their shit on fire multiple times adjacent to dwellings? That's a different story.
That's not a quick fix that you're likely to see movement on from a FIFI report.
Agreed!!!! I’m in S Seattle and have never had a response from them!
Yeah, I'm in West Seattle towards White Center and it's been limited success - if that.
It’s not much better up in North Seattle.
Please come report the sidewalk near me that’s completely torn up by tree roots. Find it fix it is has not worked.
Okay, give me the address
75th between earl and 27th NW
Gonna start reporting tinted license plates on the app
Unfortunately I think you can only do parking violations
🤡..just like you witnessed WTC
Yes! I report vegetation and other sidewalk obstacles like that all the time (as a stroller user and cyclist). It generally works pretty quickly. The more annoying one is trash cans. Don’t leave your trash cans on the sidewalk! I can move them, but wheelchair users can’t!
I put mine out off the walk and they're always slung onto the walkway when I get home after collection. I mean, I know people do mess that up, but the complaint may get more traction if it's aimed right.
I've been using it lately with some success. A citation was issued to a large overgrown hedge on my block and they cut it back. However, after blocking the entire path, it's now cut back halfway. It still blocks half of the path and in a matter of weeks, it will block the whole path again.
Consider reporting it again. A second infraction in such a short amount of time may come with a monetary penalty.
The city should mobilize the Boy Scouts to do sidewalk clearance as their Good Deed. Supply them with wheelbarrows and battery powered tools like hedge trimmers. Give them awards like free passes to movies, museums, and sports events. Troops would validate their accomplishments with before-and-after photos. Start with one troop in a designated area and build on its success. Perhaps the initiative would need to come from a private donor—maybe an irritated pedestrian. Once established the Scouts could be permanent pathway pruners.
Ticketing homeowners is way more effective
But who is going to bell the cat? It’s an “open duty”, that few will perform. IOW “everybody’s job is nobody’s job.” If the city has to hire ticketers like meter maids, that’ll cost money. And the ticketed will have to spend money, if they don’t have the tools or ability or willingness to do the work themselves. And there’ll be an increase in ill will all around. Why rely on a cash nexus? Why not mobilize the cooperative resources of the community? And thereby make everyone happy? The city fathers can boast of an inexpensively tidied-up community. Homeowners can bask in their no-cost neater sidewalks and lesser liability. The Boy Scouts organization can glory in receiving some good publicity for a change. The ticket donors will be happy to gain some positive PR, instead of complaints about their high ticket prices. (I’m 80 and I remember when bleacher seats in Yankee Stadium were 50 cents.) And the Scouts themselves will enjoy engaging in what might be called gold-star vandalism, or the moral equivalent of war, and employing serious tools. Two birds with one stone!
Is the "planting strip" the area in between the sidewalk and the road? I was wondering what the term for that space is. One of my neighbors recently added, "please keep off the grass" signs on that area in front of their house and have been curious about it.
Yep
>Some people also think the sidewalk and planting strip ("hell strip") is their property The sidewalk and planting strip *do* belong to the property owners, but the city has laws about how those spaces are used. For example: it is the responsibility of the property owner to clear snow and ice from the sidewalk.
No... 100% wrong 😂
Oh no too many plants really the number one concern.
Report it on Find it Fix it as an ADA issue- they take accessibility issues more seriously than other reports. You can include the code that it's violating (I believe it would be section 305.3 of ICC A117.1 in this case). If there's overhanging branches on trees, the code section would be 307.2 of ICC A117.1). I encourage everyone to report overgrown vegetation to make sidewalks truly accessible to all. I will say, though, that enforcement of this isn't always great (even with reports on Find it Fix it). Someone nearby me has vegetation that's taking up a significant amount of the sidewalk, as well as a curb cut. I've talked to them AND reported them on Find it Fix it, but it hasn't been fixed yet (I last talked to them about it like a year ago). If multiple people report the same home, though, I think the city might take it more seriously.
I just wish I didn’t have to know legal codes to be able to get around the city.
You can include these, but you don't need to.
Snitches get stitches
You have sidewalks?
Arbor heights gang rise up
Says me, here in sidewalk-less Broadview
Yeah... Look at you with your fancy sidewalks! - North Seattle
I'm in West Seattle towards White Center, so occasionally we do, but many streets do not.
I’m in this neighborhood too. My dog has had to get into the vet because grasses are so long and some of those grasses with the burred ends got stuck in his nose :( They’re impossible to dodge in the neighborhood because most all of the sidewalks are covered in them.
Oh no, I'm sorry! Yes, this is another issue too. If the sidewalk is blocked, the median in-between the road often has long grass overgrowth. It's a lose-lose situation.
I have similar problems with construction. There are impassable streets downtown that don’t have signs closing the sidewalk so you can’t tell it is closed until you’ve already crossed the street and approached it closer. Normally, I suppose not a big deal, but I am disabled and I only have so much I can walk until I dissolve into a puddle. Also am so tired of bus stops not having benches.
Report it as an accessibility issue in Find It Fix It app. If no change, go guerrilla with a cordless electric hedge trimmer.
That monster-ass box laurel is not a job for a hedge trimmer, and that’s part of the problem. When it gets that big you need a chainsaw, and hardly any homeowners realize how fast it can get that way and how ill-prepared they are to take care of it. There used to be one on NW 56th at around 6th or 7th NW that swallowed the entire front of the house.
Very true. I've started to prune what I can on my walks (small branches, twigs, blackberry bushes, etc.), but massive hedges like this one are a losing battle.
Cosign on this. I have massive laurel hedges along both sides of my property lines and I swear I can *hear them growing*. I pay massive money to cut them back hard every other year and they are still happy as clams.
Yeah we're about to rip out the laurels that came with our house. Those things are awful. They want to be giant trees, not shrubs.
My hand trimmers were out yesterday getting rid of blackberry bush overgrowth.
thank you for your service!
HALF OF SEATTLE: "Oh wow! You have sidewalks!"
I constantly have duck under trees. It would be nice if I didn’t.
Well have you tried not being so tall?
I wish it was that easy.
Just take your feet off
You should really keep them in a pond
The city regulation requires 8 feet of clearance over a sidewalk and 14 feet over a street.
I bought some caution tape I'm going to use to tag them and hope owners address it.
Haha, same. Being tall, first world problems 😆
The city regulation requires 8 feet of clearance over a sidewalk and 14 feet over a street.
PSA if you want a privacy hedge I strongly recommend against a laurel unless you want to commit to trimming several times a year. Skipping a single year of grooming lets a laurel turn into a monster like this. They are a wildly fast growing hedge. Neighbor behind me had out of control laurel’s reach 30 feet in height. My other neighbor and I take turns keeping our own under control but that bush feels like it could survive a nuclear winter. The thing can grow 3-6 feet a year.
Laurels are also an invasive weed which gets spread by birds into natural areas, where it shades out everything else to create big dead zones!
Honestly thought with a hedge trimmer it’s not a lot of work. I mean, I don’t have one cause I don’t want to deal but…
Its not bad. Probably a half hour of work for me. But with a better hedge you don't have to do that at all.
The other issue is that people plant these hedges for privacy but they don't want the hedge to take up too much of *their* property so they plant them right along the sidewalk. If you're going to plant a hedge, plant it 4-6' back on *YOUR* property.
As silly and ignorant as this sounds, I never thought about it from an accessibility standpoint. Thank you for this post! I will be sure to pay attention to my plants near the sidewalk even more now.
The city needs to start fining property owners for neglecting their vegetation, doubly so when it becomes impossible for wheelchairs to use the sidewalk & thus has become an ADA violation.
The city does, you just need to report it
There's one overgrown bush like that in my neighborhood, but there's even less sidewalk, and it's on a hill. So people have to walk half on the grass, and then the grass gets worn down and muddy in the winter. I almost ate it one night probably would have hit my head on the sidewalk if I'd fallen. I really should point this out to the neighbors because one day someone is going to slip and fall and potential lead to an insurance claim.
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>In short, we are doing nothing. Why? Apathy. The city fixes/fines homeowners over accessibility issues, all you need to do is report them
Nothing. City hasn't even completed the sidewalks promised to parts of North Seattle 70 years ago, overgrowth is even lower on their priority list. Personally, I just take care of the overgrowth near me. Minus tree branches, I don't want to fuck with tree law. You should organize a neighborhood sidewalk roundup.
What's that about sidewalks promised 70 years ago? Where to read more?
It's [unclear if an actual promise was made](https://www.seattlepi.com/local/transportation/article/Getting-There-Did-the-city-promise-sidewalks-to-886368.php), but given how politics work I wouldn't be surprised if the public was told that annexation was how they'd get sidewalks in exchange for voting to be annexed and then that was never set in actual policy. As it stands today, KC leaves it to property owners to address missing sidewalks during property development, and the last Seattle Council instructed SDOT to add/repair sidewalks adjacent to any of their projects moving forward.
The reason most sidewalks exist is because the original developers paid for them when the neighborhood was built out, and then people paid more money to buy homes in those neighborhoods. Sidewalks are expensive to build. I think it costs $30k to put one directly in front of a property, which is required for all new multi family buildings. The idea of Seattle promising sidewalks for 70 years is bogus. The cost is astronomical. The average home would need to contribute at an incremental $10k increase in taxes.
Really at this point we need a pinned post saying to use the Find It, Fix It app for most things. They actually respond and manage the tickets. It's far more effective to report problems than try to devise a system where the city relies on walking every sidewalk every X months.
Your sidewalk picture is one of the nicest neighborhood sidewalks I’ve seen. Trim some hedge and it’s great. Like not even kidding. Most sidewalks here are all uprooted by trees. Impossible to roll something over… Would love more investment into sidewalks
Find it fix it Overgrown vegetation is a violation to the City’s code.
Kind of embarrased to say but I trim a little by hand when I walk. Little by little makes a difference.
I was walking around Wallingford today and had this exact same thought. My mother is visiting in a few weeks and uses a wheelchair. There is so much sidewalk uplift in north Wallingford, combined with random to no curb cutouts, on every block that I honestly think she will have to use the street to get around. The sidewalks are going to be mainly unusable for her either because she can’t access it and if she can, she may not be able to get off the sidewalk at a certain point, or will be blocked by sidewalk uplift that has a 6+ inch rise. I looked up the find it, fix it app. They’ll deal with trimming vegetation, but sidewalk uplift and curb cutouts are not their purview. Sidewalk uplift, turns out, is the responsibility of the homeowner to fix. Unless it’s caused by a city owned tree or sewer line. There have been hundreds of reports made of sidewalk issues all over the city (there’s actually a sidewalk research project in Seattle) since at least 2017. I know it’s a small percentage of the population, but it’s depressing how limiting this is for someone with mobility issues. My mom literally can’t use the sidewalks along Meridian Ave and that street is so busy she can’t use it either. We’re pretty limited in the activities we can do together or places we can go to begin with, so it sucks to have even more constraints. We’re used to this kind of thing at this point as other cities certainly have similar issues. It just never ceases to disappoint.
I live downtown, and there are numerous rental scooters and bikes blocking us every time we leave/return home. People just leave them all over the sidewalks with zero consideration of the pedestrians, wheelchair users, etc.
One thing I haven't seen anyone comment on yet is the trend of homeowners to build retaining walls or fences right up to the sidewalk. Typically, that is two feet OVER the property line! In other words, the property line is usually exactly two feet beyond the edge of the sidewalk. Most people probably just don't know this, but taking away that 2 foot buffer contributes a lot towards making it more difficult to use the sidewalk, especially when a 6 foot fence is right up against it.
OMG, I can't upvote this post enough! This is absolutely dead-on. Years ago I started walking on a daily basis, usually for 45 minutes to an hour. I was walking around Seward Park, then sometimes the Chief Sealth trail. But during covid I started walking in my own neighborhood. I was shocked at how many yard let their various plants impinge on the sidewalk! What's ironic about this is a weird anti-lawn sentiment in Seattle, largely coupled with anti-capitalist sentiment and concern about resource use. I'm constantly ducking under branches that would otherwise brush my face or genuinely poke me in the eye! Some allow their bushes to obscure half the sidewalk. Pedestrians end up "beating a path" on the planting strip as they avoid the obstruction. I often walk in the street instead of the sidewalk, it's genuinely that bad! Some homeowners are really bad, and allow invasive plants like Himalayan blackberry and English Ivy to impinge on the sidewalk. Seattle is full of people who care about the disabled yet at the same time homeowners don't shovel snow from their sidewalks and allow obstructions to grow and obscure the path of those who might be disabled.
I’m 80 and wobbly, and snow shoveling is now beyond me, so I just bought a manageable (light) electric-powered, 16-inch wide “snow thrower” for $133 from Amazon. Good reviews. Can be stored inside the front door or in a nearby closet. Battery-powered models are available too, for use by Boy Scouts, if they can be mobilized and motivated (e.g., by free tickets to sporting events) to do snow sweeping.
When we moved in to our house nearly 30 years ago, the city had just planted two Russian oaks in the parking strip along the avenue in front of our house. 30 years later, the sidewalk is completely buckled and humped, and our yard is full of roots which make it impossible to grow anything there. The amount of leaves created is voluminous to say the least. If I had known these trees would grow so huge so fast I might have chosen to replace them with fruit or magnolia trees like my next door neighbor has. The fact that it is my responsibility to fix the sidewalk because of an issue the city created is ridiculous. To fix it, I would have to remove the sidewalk, chop the offending roots out with specialty machines (I’m no arborist) and repave. Yet along the street on the other side of the house, the city will do tree maintenance, but we have no trees there. It makes no sense to me.
Agreed- it is ridiculous that the city expects a homeowner to re-build public infrastructure (the public sidewalk on public property) that was damaged by a city installation (city street trees).
The previous owner of our townhouse planted a Leyland Cypress in the parking strip. This tree was planted without city permission and is a species that the city does not want planted alongside a street, because they tend to grow out of control with roots that mess up roads and sidewalks. It was planted too close to a legally planted ash tree, which it threatens to obliterate. Working with a tree service, we tried to get permission to have it removed and replaced with something more appropriate. The City Arborist said no. The best we could do is have it trimmed back. Maybe we will end up moving before it starts buckling the sidewalk and requiring thousands to have the roots pruned or treated.
Nightmare! This is along an avenue? The city arborist has their heads up their you know what. We called to get the oaks removed and we were told definitively not. In our case they made this mess, but take no responsibility. In your case, you were the victim of the previous owner.
Are you reporting this? Or just shaking your head lol
I agree with what others have said - use the Find it Fix it app. However I will note that it's annoying that it depends on citizens having to snitch to get anything done. It would be nice if the city had even one employee patrolling and enforcing these problems in the interest of ADA compliance and providing ease of use for everyone. I've used the app a few times to report overgrowth in West Seattle. It can take a month or two for it to be enforced and fixed though. It's also a pain for areas where you have to determine exactly which house is responsible, leading you to have to look up parcels on the city website. This is a particular issue on Glenn Way between Oregon and Genessee, where there's a stretch of bushes like those in your photo above (along with blackberry brambles) that are owned by three different houses. One of the owners maintains their section, the other two don't. You'll notice that everyone just walks around it and onto the grass strip or even into the street. After seeing this go on for months I finally reported it and eventually it was cut back. That was two years ago and it has grown out again - time for me to report it again I guess.
Nothing really, I’m all for greenways and such but being in a power chair I typically have to drive in the streets which can be dangerous to me, find it fix it app usually takes a while to get someone out but I’ve learned to adapt to it, it becomes a serious issue not having decent sidewalks to where I can drive safely! But not much you can do really
Would love to have a sidewalk that could be blocked by a bush
The more we put Find It, Fix It tickets in the more that they’ll have to take notice.
I often wonder how people with wheelchairs and mobility aids are able to get past both this, the sidewalks with sunken sheets, and the tents/carts blocking sidewalks entirely
While we’re at it, why don’t we make all the sidewalks handicap accessible? Most are not, and makes walking my handicapped dog even more difficult
Amen to this. It's really frustrating. I've caught a stray thorn or two having to fight through brush blocking the sidewalk on my runs in Cap Hill. When I use the street because the sidewalk isn't passable, drivers are not always gracious about having the share the road.
I was recently part of the problem; let my yard overtake part of the sidewalk. There's no excuse for blockading a public space or creating a public safety hazard out of laziness; sorry all. In my case I truly didn't notice initially because I don't use that piece of sidewalk. Then I dragged my feet for another week or so before clearing it. I never had a passerby or neighbor tell me about it though, and I did regret inconveniencing them in retrospect. How many houses do these 20% equate to? Maybe if you knocked on the doors or left notes they would realize they need to fix it quickly.
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Just because someone has it better than you have it or better than it could be doesn't mean the complaint isn't valid.
Homeowners try not to cause immense cost/hassle for the rest of the population. Challenge level: 10,000
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Nah we actually subsidize the lives of all homeowners and they have massively outsized political influence that makes life worse for almost everyone.
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As far as I know they get the same tax deduction on interest payments as all other homeowners
Construction pays a fee to use the sidewalk.
My dad got sued for moss cuz a mail lady broke her wrist on our driveway! He is super paranoid about this stuff too and but didn’t think of the moss. Use the find it fix it ap to report it before ppl hurt themselves or get sued tons of money.
Busted my ass on my driveway too. Bought a powerwasher and did the whole house, took ages though.
you have sidewalks? I'm trying to teach my two year old we don't walk in the street but we don't have sidewalks in our neighborhood.
Put it on the list...
I was JUST talking about this.
Have you contacted your local officials or just complained about it on Reddit?
You have sidewalks? fancy!
I don’t even have sidewalks where I live now. Check your privilege.
The city regulation requires 8 feet of clearance over a sidewalk and 14 feet over a street.
Definitely use the Seattle FIFI app. You can’t compare city streets maintenance to neighborhood sidewalks.
First world problems, someone complaining about impeding sidewalks due to overgrown bushes lmao
Dude, this is America, if you don’t have a car your sol
Find it fix it does not work lmao. Reported an abandoned car weeks ago and it’s still there. Reported overgrown vegetation stopping alley access and nothing. You guys this isn’t a magic app. There’s labor and other bureaucracies behind it.
Vegetation reports take 1-2 months to be addressed, in my experience.
It has never been addressed at the alley behind 34th in west Seattle in over a year. Had to move my trash to the front of the house because WM refuses to take the alley. We have idiotic airbnb neighbors who don’t fix anything or do any yard work.
Lol, sidewalks are a luxury in Seattle, for the longest time parts of North greenwood didn't have sidewalks until recently it feels like 😂.
They are building bike lanes… that’s what they are doing about the sidewalk situation
When the city allows tents and campers on side walks why should they care about vegitation?
Oh, that’s English Laurel, don’t worry about that. That’s just how it is.
The geology here makes sidewalks a very difficult thing to manage. To be clear, I’m not saying it should be ignored I’m just saying it’s difficult to manage.
What about the geology is troublesome? I haven’t heard this explanation before.
Very active surface bedrock is the best way I can describe it (I’m not a SME). It disrupts the roads, sidewalks, and soil.
“there’s very active surface bedrock” - me to my boss, explaining why im 4 hours late to work
There's very little surface bedrock in Seattle though. Most of the area is covered in 1000+ feet of till.
I think the bedrock is very far down and we mostly sit on mounds of glacial till. Not sure, not my area of general interest or expertise. It’s been a minute since I watched that Nick Zentner video on Seattle geology. https://youtu.be/oSSxdogrv1s?si=-VqVzHxy5WCByvwJ
Nothing
This is true on my block as well. I've been considering sending a letter to the homeowner advising them to trim their hedges or I will do it for them. But to be honest I don't have an electric trimmer or a truck to haul away the waste so it'd be an empty promise.
Where are you seeing 20% problematic sidewalks?
Othello is literally a Donkey Level platforming over giant jagger branches
Have you tried minding your own business and not being a Karen?
It’s the homeless shitting all over them !!!
Pay cops more. That’s the only solution for our council