Boston has a sidewalk problem, and residents flood the city’s 311 line with complaints. The sidewalks are even an issue on one of the city’s most well-known streets, despite a multi-million-dollar plan to redesign it.
State Street runs from Boston Harbor to the Old State House. The street is just a cobblestone’s throw from Quincy Market and usually packed with tourists. Its history goes back about 400 years when we can only assume the sidewalks were just a little bit better than today.
The street became a banking hotbed in the 1800s and now you can bank on having a tough time navigating it on foot. It’s only one-third of a mile long but getting down the obstacle course of a sidewalk feels like an expedition. There’s crumbled concrete, uneven bricks, missing stones and one curb that has been replaced by plywood.
Jane Stricker and Pat Palmer live nearby and walk down State Street all the time. “It’s a dangerous street I think,” said Palmer…