Blog: Slip & Fall - Page 6

If you tripped on an uneven curb or sidewalk in Hawthorne, Philadelphia, more than one party may owe you money. In most cases, the owner of the property next to the sidewalk must keep it reasonably safe, while the city answers for the curb ramps it builds. Who pays depends on which part of the …

Walk up Conrad Street on a fall morning. The sidewalk tells the story of the neighborhood. Brick rows from the 1890s sit next to slate slabs and patches of newer concrete. Each material has settled at a different rate. The result is a row of small lips and tilted edges underfoot. That mix gives Upper …

Climb the steel stairs at Huntingdon Station on a cold morning, and you can feel the century in the treads. The Market-Frankford El opened above Kensington Avenue in 1922. Many of those original stair landings are still in daily use today. Thousands of riders walk down them at rush hour and at midnight. The platform …

Step off the 13th Street curb at Walnut, walk one block east, and the ground changes. The concrete gives way to a single block paved in dark wood. Camac’s 200 block is the only street in Philadelphia still paved in wood. By daylight, it shows its deep history. At 10:00 p.m. on a wet Friday …

Walk North 31st Street between Master and Jefferson at midday, and the block tells two tales at once. Six- and seven-story brick brewery walls from the 1870s rise on one side. New concrete sidewalk pads, poured in the last decade, run right up to them. The seam where the eras meet is where many falls …

Walk into Jefferson Square Park on a weekday morning, and the surface under your feet tells two stories at once. The newer concrete paths feel modern. The old granite walls and pillars at the corners date to the 1870s. That mix of eras is part of the charm. It is also part of why people …