Sidewalks are the threshold of public life, shaping how we move and connect in our everyday lives. But they’re often overlooked and underfunded, leading to incomplete sidewalk networks or a lack of any at all. So how can we prioritize sidewalks as demand for walkability grows?
During a recent webinar, Michael Pollack, author of the new book Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America’s Most Overlooked Resource, and Jill Locantore, Executive Director of the Denver Streets Partnership, sat down with Mike McGinn, Executive Director of America Walks, to discuss the crucial role of sidewalks in our transportation network.
The Vital Role of Sidewalks
“Sidewalks are at the center of many of our most significant public space debates,” said Michael, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. “The choices we make about them touch everything that matters in our lives and civic policy”—implicating questions of personal mobility, commerce, property rights, law enforcement, and more.
In his new book Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America’s Most Overlooked Resource, Michael explores the importance of sidewalks from numerous areas of law and policy, and makes the case that sidewalks deserve more attention and investment than they tend to get.
Whether we realize it or not, sidewalks support our lives as essential public resources. They connect our communities and are a vital thread in the tapestry of social and civic engagement. And there is surprising demand for sidewalks and “sidewalk life” in places that don’t have them. In a 2026 National Association of Realtors survey of 2,000 residents in America’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, 89% of respondents said sidewalks and places to walk are important when deciding where to live.
But sidewalks tend to be taken for granted in policy and law. That’s due to most municipalities placing the responsibility for construction and maintenance on adjacent property owners. Structural, legal, and financial constraints also make it difficult for local governments to coordinate sidewalk management effectively. Sidewalk work encompasses many departments and agencies—departments of transportation, sanitation, public works, consumer affairs, parks, health, law enforcement, safety. So most people don’t even know where to start, and even with the best of intentions and plans, necessary work can fail to pan out.
In his book, Michael proposes two ideas for saving the sidewalk:
- Shrink the footprint of private landowners and have municipalities take on the burden of responsibility, as exemplified in cities like Hudson and Ithaca, New York; Louisville, Kentucky; and Denver, Colorado
- Consolidate sidewalk responsibility and oversight within government by creating a Department of Sidewalks for coherent, one-stop regulation and maintenance
“Sidewalks are the core of what makes vibrant cities and towns connected spaces,” said Michael Pollack, “but they need careful, focused attention and well-designed regulation to work for everyone.”
Prioritizing Sidewalks in Denver, Colorado
In 2025, the City of Denver, Colorado, made headlines with an exciting new program that shifts the responsibility for sidewalk construction and maintenance from property owners to the city. The program is the culmination of years of effort spearheaded by Denver Streets Partnership, a grassroots organization focused on designing communities that put people first.
Bad sidewalks have been a citywide problem for a long time, explained Jill Locantore, who leads Denver Streets Partnership. 40% of Denver’s streets, and 47% in low-income areas, have missing or substandard sidewalks.
Pressure for action has existed for decades. In 2001, the city adopted a comprehensive land use and transportation plan that recognized sidewalks and the pedestrian environment as the central system connecting all modes. In 2004, the city adopted a master plan that called for a more proactive approach to sidewalk maintenance and reliable funding mechanisms, such as a property fee. At the time, the city wasn’t spending any money on sidewalks, and the responsibility for maintenance and construction rested on adjacent property owners. But there wasn’t enough political will to put the master plan’s recommendations into practice.
In 2015, WalkDenver, the predecessor of Denver Streets Partnership, called on the city and county to make good on their promise of taking on construction and maintenance of sidewalks. The effort was successful, garnering support and petition signatures that resulted in initial wins, including dedicated funding in the annual budget and nearly $50 million for new sidewalks through a voter-approved general obligation bond. The city also initiated a new proactive neighborhood inspection and repair program to alert adjacent property owners of work needing to be done.
The city also updated its pedestrian master plan, developing a prioritization scheme for building out its sidewalk network. The plan estimated cost—and led to the realization that this was a billion-dollar problem and, under current funding conditions, would take over 400 years to complete.
So Denver Streets Partnership reanimated its sidewalk initiative, working with an auditor, who agreed that putting responsibility on adjacent property owners for sidewalk construction and maintenance had led to unequal access to sidewalks throughout the city and economic hardship for lower-income neighborhoods. But even then, the political willpower wasn’t there.
Finally, Denver Streets Partnership took the issue directly to the voters through a citizen-officiated ballot measure to enact the Denver Deserves Sidewalks Program, which:
- Placed the responsibility for construction and repairs on the city (instead of residents/business owners)
- Created an annual property fee to create a dedicated, permanent funding source, and provided ongoing funding for repairs
- Enabled construction of a complete sidewalk network to serve every city neighborhood in nine years
Public support was key to getting the initiative passed. Denver Streets Partnership gathered endorsements from neighborhood associations all the way up to national organizations, as well as 20,000 signatures to be included on the ballot. The measure passed in the 2022 general election, then was approved by the City Council with amendments in 2024, before being implemented on January 1, 2025. As of 2026, the city is building new sidewalks!
Rethinking Sidewalks As Public Space and Priority
During the Q&A portion of the webinar, Michael and Jill answered audience questions ranging from snow removal considerations to alternate funding mechanisms for sidewalk networks, especially when you’re told “there’s no money for sidewalks.”
Finding new streams of funding is important, said Michael, but so is reallocating existing sources of transportation dollars. Denver’s solution was property fees, but there are many others, including public-private partnerships and leveraging on-street parking revenue.
Jill acknowledged that most transportation funding comes from federal sources, which complicates how they can be used for more local programs. Denver wanted to find a truly citywide solution that didn’t leave any neighborhood behind.
Both panelists spoke on the importance of rethinking sidewalks as public space and priority, just like parks and roads. The law primarily thinks of sidewalks as an amenity for property owners, said Michael, not part of a community’s transportation network.
On the subject of more holistically reframing how we think about the public realm, Jill said, “We tend to think of transportation as something that happens between the curbs, and that space is for cars. Everything above the curb is where we squeeze the rest of public life.”
Michael sees a spectrum of reform to be made for better prioritizing sidewalks as part of the public realm that intersects with so many other aspects of life and interests. “Even just having the conversation about what could we do better to manage sidewalks in particular, and public space in general, is a great start.”
For more, watch the whole webinar here!
This publication was made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Contract #47QRAA20D003W). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC. These efforts are part of the CDC’s Active People, Healthy NationSM Initiative that is working to help 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027.
