Believe it or not, the Inman Park Sidewalk Committee formed in late 2001 to salvage our deteriorating sidewalks. Through our council woman, Debi Starnes, we secured an initial grant of $57,000 to jumpstart our program. We started with a long swath of sidewalk on Lake Avenue and from there began offering subsidies to Inman Park neighbors. Once the grant ran out, IPNA established a budget to subsidize the sidewalk program. To date, we have re-laid over 150 individual sidewalks and five community sidewalks on almost every street in the neighborhood.
We are particularly proud of the streets like Alta, Austin, Euclid, Hale and Waverly where so many neighbors have participated in the program that we have entire blocks that are new and more walkable. That has been by design: the subsidy rewards contiguous neighbors who get their sidewalks repaired by granting higher subsidies. The standard subsidy is 50%, but 2 contiguous neighbors receive a 55% subsidy, and 3 or more contiguous neighbors receive a 60% subsidy.
Here’s how the program works: