Everyone agrees that sidewalks are important.
Where they connect neighborhoods, schools, parks, and businesses, sidewalks improve safety and encourage walking. But somewhere along the way, common sense gave way to bureaucracy.
Today, local governments are increasingly requiring builders to construct sidewalks that literally connect to nothing. Not sidewalks that complete a network. Not sidewalks that lead to schools. Not sidewalks that improve pedestrian safety. Not sidewalks that are part of a larger public infrastructure plan based upon input from the community.
Instead, isolated sections of concrete are mandated by unelected bureaucrats in front of individual homes on roads where no sidewalks exist, where none are planned, and where they cannot practically be used…