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What happens when the city or the state doesn’t shovel its own sidewalk? Nothing.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Dec 29, 2025
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Liam Quigley
By
Liam Quigley
Published Dec 29, 2025
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Lety Escalante was trudging down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn on her way to work Monday morning when she encountered a roughly 830-foot expanse of snow and ice on the sidewalk beside the Long Island Railroad.
The sidewalk next to the MTA trainyard showed no sign that it had ever been shoveled since a snowstorm dropped over four inches of snow on New York City Friday night and Saturday morning.
"It’s hard to walk. We still have to go out, but for a woman with a baby, it’s very difficult and very dangerous," Escalante said.
Sanitation officials have issued more than 3,000 tickets to private property owners since Saturday night. Those fines range from $100 for first-time offenders and up to $350 for repeat violations.
But the city does not issue those violations against itself, or when that property is owned by the state. And like the stretch of sidewalk on Atlantic Avenue, Gothamist found several walkways next to state-owned property and city-owned parks like Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene and Dean Playground in Prospect Heights that had not been cleared by Monday morning's rush.
Private property owners have four hours to clear snow if it stops falling between 7 a.m. and 4:59 p.m. That grace period expands to 14 hours if snowfall ends between 5 p.m. and 8:59 p.m., and there’s an 11 a.m. deadline for snowfall that ends between 9 p.m. and 6:59 a.m.
While the snow that began on Friday didn't bring as many inches of powder as forecasters expected, thousands of New York City property owners failed to clear their sidewalks of snow and ice.
MTA officials said the agency wasn’t responsible for the section of sidewalk on Atlantic Ave. above the rail yard.
City records identified the State Economic Development Corporation as the owner of the neighboring parcel.
The agency did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
An unshoveled city-owned sidewalk outside the Dean Playground in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Liam Quigley
At the nearby Dean Playground, a section of sidewalk had similarly gone un-shoveled, irking neighbor Luis Peralta.
“ This is a mess. It just creates a risk for injury,” he said. “ They gotta put somebody to work to clean it.”
After Gothamist reached out for comment, parks spokesperson Chris Clark said a crew had been dispatched and cleared the sidewalk later Monday morning. The parks department is responsible for 2,000 miles of pathway citywide and usually tasks 1,000 workers with clearing snow, Clark said.
Joshua Goodman, a spokesperson for the sanitation department, said that the agency would monitor reports about icy sidewalks on city-owned property and issue internal memos asking for the situation to be fixed.
The department can’t issue fines to other government agencies. While the sanitation department employs emergency shoveling crews, it doesn’t proactively clear large expanses of sidewalk unprompted.
“We do clear some pedestrian infrastructure like bus stops and areas around fire hydrants, but we don't bill anyone for that,” he said. Goodman reminded property owners of the safety risk of not clearing sidewalks.
“Why do I have to clear my sidewalk? You just want to write the property owner a ticket? No, we don't want somebody to fall and break their head open because you couldn't be bothered to get out of bed.”
New Yorkers can call 311 or use the 311 app to complain about uncleared sidewalks.
Tagged
new york city
parks
Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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