A good compromise!

Last week, Sarah and I were walking downtown and noticed that the stairs at Lincoln and Summit were "closed." Every winter the city does this. I would imagine it's a liability issue they think they are avoiding by hanging up the sign. As usual, we wondered how many people every winter, trip over the cable that is "closing" the stairs and actually take a tumble - thanks to the city trying to avoid liability. Sort of like when I witnessed a Spokane police officer on TV muse that the city should stop painting crosswalk lines because this opens the city up for liability, when someone uses a well-marked crosswalk, and they get hit by a car. His thinking was that the city guarantees safety in a designated crosswalk and when that safety is violated, the city is responsible.

Ridiculous.

The picture above is of the Perry stairs. Yesterday, I discovered that the city has found an interesting compromise - just close half the width of the stairs.

The right side must be the down side, so no one will fall down the stairs - only up - on the left side if they slip on ice.

Sounds good to me!