A New Snow Ordinance

Today I learned on the radio that Salt Lake County is considering an ordinance to require people to shovel their sidewalks within 24 hours of a snowstorm, or face a $50 to $100 fine.  The purpose of this is to make Salt Lake more pedestrian, bike, and wheelchair friendly.

Have these people no heart?  Consider, especially, that provisions are not made for the following:

• Those with disabilities,
• Widows,
• Single mothers with young children,
• Families on vacation,
• Those attempting to sell an empty house, possibly while out-of-state.

It's up to the goodness and kindness of the hearts of the officers, and later, the judges, enforcing this ordinance, to make exceptions for such cases.

The article I linked to blames "absentee landlords" and "businesses" as the worst offenders.  Isn't it the tenant who is responsible, and not the landlord?  Oh, wait, it is, except for those big apartment complexes--but even then, will there be no sympathy for those landlord companies that have enough staff to fix things, but not enough to make the rounds for shoveling the snow for all their properties--and who may not be able to pay for extra help, because it's monstrously difficult to hire new people (thank you, IRS!), and because they may already be operating "close to the metal"?

Furthermore, if I recall correctly, if a business is next to a sidewalk, and that sidewalk is next to a street (very common in downtown Salt Lake), then that business owner cannot legally shovel that snow into the street.  For the longest time, I've wondered what business owners are supposed to do with that snow.

Clarification:  It was my original understanding (from the radio blurb) that this ordinance was new; according to this article, though, that this ordinance has been around for twenty years, and this is just an attempt to make it more strict.