Key points from consultant Dan Burden's visit were presented during the most recent City Council meeting, including the internationally recognized authority on "walkable" cities' suggestions for the city as it grows.
It's difficult to imagine wanting to make our city more "walkable" in the winter. When it's cold and windy outside most of us don't look forward to running outside to the car let alone going for a walk.
The fact of the matter is that some people have no choice but to walk, winter or not, and there are residents who try to accommodate these walkers and those who do not.
If properly bundled up, a wintertime stroll can be quite enjoyable, but who wants to trip and slip on sidewalks that are packed with lumpy ice and snow?
Try to imagine your mother or grandmother pushing her walker down the sidewalk to buy some bread. I can barely push a shopping cart through most snow-packed parking lots, how is someone with a walker supposed to get around? It may not even be an old lady; it might be a young lady with MS, or a mother pushing a baby stroller.
It's understandable that not everyone can keep their sidewalks clear of snow during the winter months. As the Heart and Stroke Foundation recently warned, too many unfit and elderly people overexert themselves every winter by taking on the strenuous activity of snow shovelling after having been mostly inactive all year. Exertion and cold air combine to increase the workload on the heart, raising blood pressure and straining the arteries' ability to give the heart oxygen. Regular, moderate physical activity protects against heart disease, but sudden stressful exercise such as shovelling heavy snow can be too much for people with underlying heart disease.
Apparently, hospital emergency department personnel say that the number of acute heart problems increase when there's a significant drop in the temperature or following a heavy snowfall.
Those who cannot, or should not, be shovelling can get help by hiring someone to do the chilly task for them, such as the Canadian Mental Health Association. There are also several companies and individuals who can do the job.
Some lucky residents have wonderful neighbours with snow blowers who keep the whole neighbourhood clear, from what I've been told. These people should be commended for their generosity (and move to my neighbourhood).
You may not want to do the whole neighbourhood, but if you have a neighbour who just can't seem to get their sidewalk shovelled why not lend them a hand, if you are able to. After all, it's Christmas...a very WHITE Christmas.
