A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 19-32, regarding a report on the number of fines for failure to clear sidewalks issued from the winter of 2014-15 through the winter of 2018-19, received from Owen O’Riordan, Commissioner of Public Works

147 Hampshire Street CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT City of Cambridge Cambridge, MA 02139 OF PUBLIC theworks@cambridgema.gov Department of Public Works voice: [phone removed] THE Owen O'Riordan, Commissioner ORKS tdd: [phone removed] TO: City Manager Louis DePasquale DPW Commissioner Owen O'Riordan FROM: RE: Council Order Response to 0-4 of March 18, 2019: That the City Manager is requested to consult with the Department of Public Works to report on the number of fines for failure to clear sidewalks issued from the winter of 2014-15 through the winter of 2018-19. DATE: June 6, 2019 FULL TEXT OF ORDER FOR REFERENCE- That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to consult with the Department of Public Works to report on the number of fines for failure to clear sidewalks issued from the winter of 2014-15 through the winter of 2018-19 (5 years), using the data available on the Open Data Portal and on Commonwealth Connect (if available for that year), showing the locations where reports were submitted and fines were issued each winter, and indicating which property owners received multiple fines annually, and any trends indicated by the data and the use of Commonwealth Connect to help making reporting and tracking violations easier; and be it further That the report be used as the basis for discussion in a future meeting of the Public Safety Committee on what enforcement policies, incentives and targeted outreach programs the City can employ to improve compliance so that snow clearance violations become extremely rare in future winters. Overview of the City's Sidewalk Snow Clearing Programs • Cambridge places high value of maintaining safe, accessible public ways for all users throughout the year. That is the goal of all our sidewalk-related clearing and enforcement program: keeping sidewalks and curb ramps usable for all pedestrians to the greatest extent possible during the winter months. • There are 250 miles of sidewalks in the City. City crews and contractors clear 23 miles of sidewalk, adjacent to municipal facilities (buildings, parks, plazas) as well as certain high-volume pedestrian routes. • The City also works on targeted clearing of piles within intersections and at crossings, as this can create a significant barrier to pedestrians and is the most difficult snow for individual owners to address when it is heavy/ wet. The City also clears a large number of high-volume bus stops and associated street crossings after large storms. • Coordinates with large institutional and commercial owners to ensure they clear sidewalks to the maximum extent possible. • Sidewalk clearing by individual property owners is the foundation of providing safe access during the winter. The amount of labor and equipment that would be required for the City to clear all sidewalks would be prohibitively expensive and likely logistically impossible to clear in a timely fashion. Experience with hiring both seasonal workers and bidding contracted snow shoveling services suggests there is not a sufficient labor market for this type of work. • The City has relied on an approach to enforcement that focuses on in-time interventions with property owners designed to increase compliance with sidewalk clearing ordinances to the greatest extent possible. We do one-on one outreach with high impact, repeat violators both before and during the season. It is our experience that individual conversations about the impact of uncleared sidewalks on the community is the most effective way to promote compliance with businesses,

147 Hampshire Street CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT City of Cambridge Cambridge, MA 02139 OF PUBLIC theworks@cambridgema.gov Department of Public Works voice: [phone removed] THE Owen O'Riordan, Commissioner tdd: [phone removed] YORKS owners, and residents. Leaving orange tags for residents and mailing tickets to owners is also an important part of the program. Complaints and Citations Over the Past Five Years Since the City began utilizing Commonwealth Connect to manage complaints about icy and unshovelled sidewalks in Jan 2016, a total of 2,868 such complaints have been received. These break down over a four- year period as follows: Snow Season # of Complaints Received 276 2016 1068 2016-2[phone removed]-2[phone removed]-2019 The City has issued 1,977 fines for failure to clear sidewalks during the five snow seasons beginning at the end of 2014. This breaks down as follows: # of Citations Issued Snow Season 912 2014-2015 2015-2[phone removed]-2017 [phone removed]-2[phone removed]-2019 During the past five years, fifty-eight percent of tickets are issued to addresses that are one-time violators. Seventy-nine percent of tickets are issued to addresses that are either one or two-time violators. Below is a detailed breakdown of addresses that have had repeat violations (last five snow seasons). Number of Total Tickets Number of Addresses Issued Offenses 1 13 13 2 20 10 1 9 9 8 8 1 2 14 6 30 7 35 18 4 72 71 213 414 207 2

147 Hampshire Street CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT City of Cambridge Cambridge, MA 02139 OF PUBLIC theworks@cambridgema.gov Department of Public Works voice: [phone removed] THE Owen O Riordan, Commissioner tdd: [phone removed] WORKS 1149 1 1149 1977 1464 Totals Trends Toward Reduction in Extreme Repeat Violators To understand the impact of the City's snow enforcement program on the behavior of repeat violators, one can look at a revised table below that looks only at the past four years. The vast majority of extreme repeat violators were identified in 2015, which led to increased education and enforcement efforts. In subsequent seasons there is a marked decrease in repeat violators. In the past four years sixty-eight percent were one-time violators. Ninety percent of tickets were issued to addresses that are either one or two-time violators. Of the 872 address that received violations over this time period, there were 11 locations that had 3 tickets or more issued to them in a single year. In 2017-2018 there was only one address that had 3 tickets and 9 addresses that had 2 violations issued. Eighty-seven percent were single issue violations. In 2018-2019 there were two address that had 3 tickets issued and 12 address that had 2 violations issued. Eighty-five percent of violations were single issue. No address had more than 3 tickets issued to them during this 2-year time period. Total Tickets Issued Number of Offenses Number of Addresses 5 5 36 4 3 63 21 2 120 240 721 1 721 1065 872 Totals Next Steps in Program Improvement This summer as part of our annual snow season preparations, Public Works will be working to transition our snow ticketing system from an old legacy software to Viewpoint. We believe this will improve real-time access to enforcement data. We will also continue to conduct additional direct outreach to repeat violators in advance of this coming winter and in real-time throughout the winter.