Virginia Talks: Your voice, your opinion, loud and clear.

Today we are blogging about civic responsibility. While past posts have concerned our responsibility when it comes to picking up dog doo, guerrilla gardening, the spread of recycling from it's treehugging roots or recently the placement of recycling on the curb for pickup, today's blog concerns making sure we keep our neighborhood safe.

Those of you may remember a recent note from a concerned neighbor who informed us all that the city sidewalks are the property of the people who live in the houses abutting them, the three attorneys living at 2703 do not concur but that is irrelevant. According to West of the Boulevard the city code in Richmond requires that for ever house in the city:

We could look this up on the City of Richmond website (which apparently has been recently redesigned) but this time we are going to just trust WOTB. We will also trust this is law because our neighbor and 2nd District City Councilmember, Charles Samuels, was out shoveling his sidewalk with his wife while we were doing ours.

Not that anyone would be surprised but yesterday the urban farmers of 2703 traded our pitch forks and hoes for shovels and cans of PBR while we cleared off not only the front entrance of 2703 but also the sidewalk from property line to property line, per the city code. (a side note two of us actually dug a stranded woman's car out of a snowbank for her as well, but who's counting)

While neighbors, some of whom recently made accusations about a lack of civic responsibility at 2703, sat inside the warmth and comfort of their houses and apartments possibly performing a one-person acoustic concert, we did as not only the law requires but also what good neighbors do, we shoveled our sidewalks.

Our sidewalks are clean, clear and safe:

Our neighbor's, in contrast, are not: