The cobblestone tree well outside Novak’s Restaurant on Second Avenue in downtown Albany on March 5, 2023.
The tree wells on downtown Albany sidewalks may look decorative, but Councilwoman Matilda Novak says they are a dangerous trip hazard and should be replaced.
Novak made the point in remarks toward the end of the council meeting on Feb. 22.
A 93-year-old man tripped and fell at the tree well outside her family’s restaurant, Novak told the council. He was pushing his wife in a wheelchair on the sidewalk when “he went down like a rock on his knees.”
The man appeared unhurt, Novak said. But the incident showed that the “uneven and lumpy” surface was hazardous, and she urged Albany Public Works to do something about it.
The city staff didn’t immediately respond to her comments at the time.
The tree wells are paved with what appear to be cobblestones. They were installed along about a dozen blocks of downtown streets in 2018 as part of the $10 million streetscape project sponsored by CARA, the central Albany urban renewal district.
Since then, the array of stones in some of the wells has sunk an inch or two below the concrete surface of the sidewalk.
Now that the situation has been brought up in a council meeting available on YouTube, it will have to be fixed before somebody does get hurt and then looks for someone to blame. (hh)
And here’s a closer look at this decorative element in the city sidewalk.
Fair enough. Having tripped on a tree well downtown myself several years ago, it’s probably due for a systemic fix.,
I cringe every time I read CARA (Can Albany REALLY Afford). Such a wasteful organization. Use the money and FIX OUR STREETS.
Hey, Mr Know Nothing, as I explained to you YEARS ago, money is restricted by STATE LAW on where it can be spent. Streets improvements are tied to Gas Tax revenue which has been short on covering need for about 40 years. Want the streets fixed? Increase the funding.
Sounds like non-gasoline/diesel vehicles that don’t pay the fuel tax should be prohibited from using the roads if they aren’t going to be paying into the fund to build/maintain them.
Alternatively, let them all become gravel roads and then people might slow down, thus saving an abundance of carbon pollution. Hmm. Benefits all around!
Ironic that you call someone else Mr Know Nothing, Cara funds were in fact used to pave downtown
And what happens to road maintenance as more are forced into electric vehicles? Less “gas tax revenue”. Being much heavier the gas powered vehicles, they’ll have a worse impact on road surfaces. Just something else nobody wants to address.
I occasionally stumble or trip, but I’ve never blamed anyone but myself!
If there’s an actual hole in a pathway then yes I’d be upset….but here’s another business trying to get the city to pay for their potential lawsuits.
So maybe the contractor who installed it should stand behind their work?
Naw, it’d be more fun to get it from the taxpayer…We haven’t been bilked enough yet.
That’s the problem with having to accept the lowest bid, then not having anyone qualified overseeing the project to make sure the work is done correctly.
Would Councilor Novak’s “concern” for Albany street-walking residents have anything to do with the potential liability the restaurant by the same last name might bear for injuries that happen in front of said establishment.
Under the legal doctrine, known as adverse possession, it may be possible to demonstrate that persons or businesses that have these uneven tree wells near doorways might hold some liability for slips, trips, falls and other horrifying events that take place when tangling with one of the uneven wells.
The theory being, the businesses and buildings fronting the tree wells may have an obligation to mitigate the liability. By failing to do so, they perhaps open themselves up to insurance claims for injuries occurring as a result of tripping/falling.
What with the City being somewhat indemnified against such claims because the tree wells were installed at the behest of Albany voters who elected the Councilors, who then voted to approve the installation of the tree wells, that that city is not or perhaps is less liable. When a good personal injury attorney is looking to sue, their first task is to identify who has enough money to make the lawsuit profitable, the Deep Pockets Theory. In this case, where there’s plenty of insurance money available from both the public and private sector, it would be logical to sue anyone even tangentially connected.
So we return to Councilor Novak, an elected official that has exposure on this issue. The potential for losing a personal injury claim is a very real thing for the City as well as for those business owners who fail to mitigate the problem. Given this duality, one might question Councilor Novak’s objection to the tree wells as political opportunism.
Who knows? An imaginative attorney might even find a way to drag CARA into a juicy liability battle. What to look for? Keep an eye on the tree wells located in front of some of the tony downtown law firms.
Point of order Hartman
The restaurant likely doesn’t own either the sidewalk or the planting strip
The liability balloon deflates…..
Wow! Concern for an elderly 93 year old man pushing his elderly wife in a wheel chair turned into a political bashing. What a world we live in. It is absolutely necessary for people to walk in areas like that when you park in the city. Why blame the messenger for the city creating a flawed design. Should she have berated the poor man to be more careful when trying to traverse the city’s attractive wheelchair obstacle course? Good for Novak for speaking up and sticking up for him so no one else will be hurt in the future.
When you install pavers near tree roots, the roots will rot and the tree fails.
I remember when they put them in, and now when I come out of work EVERY day, I see them broken, uneven, folks have pulled a few out, they can be used as weapons or to break windows, etc and it was a very bad idea all around. Absolutely overdue for a fix!
I would suggest Councilwoman Novak direct her attention to Chapter 14.16 SIDEWALK REPAIRS under Albany’s code requirements. It states: “duty of all owners of land adjoining any street in the City to maintain in good repair the sidewalks in front of their land”, “duty of the City Engineer, to give notice to the owner of the property adjacent to the defective sidewalk to repair it”, “unless the deficiency is corrected within the time specified, the City may correct the deficiency, and the cost of the work shall be assessed against the real property adjacent to the repaired sidewalk”. As for Council power, it states: “The Council shall have the authority to determine the grade and width of all sidewalks, the material to be used, and the specifications for the repair thereof”. Perhaps
an elected official could manipulate the wording “specifications for the repair thereof” to require taxpayers to be liable for repairs necessary instead of the “real property owner”.
DC
Um, this isn’t a sidewalk issue.
What is pertinent to the planter strip?
In regards to the comments regarding electric vehicles and road taxes. In Oregon the owner of an electric vehicle does pay their way for road maintenance – they have 2 options one is to pay a higher registration fee yearly or the second is to pay “per mile driven” tax once a year.
I love the older look of those cobblestones and while I dont like to see anyone trip, that can happen on a regular sidewalk too! Why take yet another nice character aspect away from the downtown area? Perhaps an update but not full removal.