Hamilton resident Marina Tosheff hadn’t given the sidewalk in front of her house much thought until she saw the citation from the city Department of Transportation saying that she was in violation.

It said her sidewalk needed about $2,000 worth of work, which the city was happy to do for her – at her expense.

Tosheff, who lives on Rueckert Avenue, was cited specifically for 300 square feet of repairs because the walkways are “sunken,” “scaled” and “off-grade.”

“This is both laughable and scary,” Tosheff said, pointing to what appears to be a normal-looking city sidewalk.

Tosheff contacted the DOT “footway” inspector whose name appears on the citation and asked for an explanation.

“He said the sidewalk was sloping toward the grass and if I didn’t have the grass, it might not be sloping,” she said. (Tosheff says she still doesn’t understand what he meant by that.)

“It seems,” she concluded, “like these violations are entirely at the discretion of the inspectors.”

Tosheff is not alone.

One of her neighbors, Eileen McCarthy, got billed by the city for about $2,000 for sidewalk repair. McCarthy thought it must have been a mistake until she talked to others.

In fact, it appears that DOT cited their entire block – or at least 18 households. The Brew looked around at McCarthy’s, Tosheff’s and several other sidewalks, and none of them appeared to be in bad condition or potentially dangerous to pedestrians.

“They’ll Write up the Whole Block”

Wondering how inspectors determine whether a patch of Baltimore sidewalk is in violation, The Brew contacted DOT. Are there guidelines or do inspectors make these determinations at their own discretion?

DOT public affairs acknowledged The Brew’s November 12 query, but has yet to reply.

We have tried, in the meantime, to glean information from the DOT website. Under most circumstances, city homeowners are responsible for repairing their sidewalks, particularly when they are in serious disrepair or a public hazard.

Sidewalk damage caused by tree roots and utilities, on the other hand, is the city’s responsibility to fix.

Surprisingly for an older city like Baltimore, municipal sidewalk repairs are not made on any kind of predictable schedule or in a systematic way.

So how is it determined when to inspect and who to cite? Since we couldn’t get that question answered as a reporter, we tried calling the city as a citizen.

”It’s all complaint driven,” said the person who answered from the sidewalk and alley section of DOT, offering this typical scenario:

“Someone was walking down the street and didn’t like how the sidewalk looked and called it in [to 311]. They think they’re calling about this one house, but then what’ll happen? They’ll write up the whole block.”

So the city cites every house on the block, even though the 311 caller had only complained about one address?

“Yep. It’s a money thing, I guess,” the DOT representative said. “The contractor wants to fix the whole street and make it worth their while.”

$450 to Fix What City Broke

It was McCarthy, an emergency room nurse, who first told us about the DOT policy of writing up an entire street. She said she was told, when she called, that “contractors won’t come out for just one house.” The staffer told her that someone in her neighborhood had been wanting their sidewalk replaced for years, and the city finally sent someone out to inspect it.

Her citation indicates that her sidewalks are “sunken,” “broken,” “off grade” and “scaled.” As the property owner (PO), she is responsible for repairing 240 square feet of sidewalk at $6.50 per square foot – plus 60 square feet of driveway (DW) at $7.50/square foot.

Almost all of the violations, McCarthy believes, are unjustifiable. She acknowledges she does have one crack in her sidewalk next to the water meter.

One violation she feels is especially unfair is the gouge the city made in her driveway when they laid new asphalt down on her street recently. For that, they want to charge her $450 to fix.

For the most part, she said her sidewalks look nothing like the busted-up, crumbled “violation” pictured on the DOT’s web page, and she insists her walkways are “not unsafe.”

Arbitrary Appeals Process

Both McCarthy and Tosheff thought about appealing their citation, but what they learned about the process left them pretty cynical about it.

The citations states that within five days of receiving the violation, recipients can contact DOT and give reasons why work should not be performed. And if residents are dissatisfied with the DOT decision, they can petition the Municipal Zoning and Appeals Board (BMZA), whose decision is final.

But McCarthy said she was told by the DOT staffer she reached by phone that she can’t really appeal the violation and stop the work from being done.

“I was told, ‘They are going to do the work no matter what, and you could appeal the bill when it comes, and maybe get an abatement,’” she recalled.

When The Brew contacted DOT (twice), we were told the same thing. “You can’t appeal the violation,” the staffer said. “You can appeal the bill. That’s what they [zoning] have been telling people. They will maybe abate some of the bill.”

Our phone call to the zoning board netted almost the same answer. Homeowners can request a zoning hearing and explain their side, the BMZA rep said, “It’s their right to do so.” But the best that appellants can typically get is a lowered bill. “Generally speaking, if you have good evidence, you will get a bill reduction.”

Take Pictures

Flummoxed not only by the violation but also by the appeal process, McCarthy said she now worries about how she will pay the bill.

“This is $2,000 worth of work. The city is like, ‘You have to do it, and you have to do it now,’” she said. “I don’t know how I will pay for it.”

Residents can choose to do the work themselves or hire their own contractor, McCarthy discovered.

To take the latter course, she would have to purchase a permit, and the contractor would have to obtain a street obstruction bond in the amount of at least $2,000.

McCarthy was even more frustrated when a staffer at zoning gave her this advice:

“Go out and document it. Take pictures, and hopefully you can prove to the city that the work didn’t need to be done in the first place.”