Good idea: In Denver, city maintains sidewalks

Sidewalk maintenance can quickly alter the math of a residential property sale. Municipal inspectors are known to spray paint sidewalk blocks during use and occupancy (U&O) inspections, marking them as needing repair — or, more often, replacement. The work can easily run into the thousands of dollars.

The city of Denver, Colorado, has taken a different approach. A recent article in Strong Towns (Sidewalk Repair is State Capacity, published Jan. 8, 2026) explains a program that was launched a few years ago:

Most residents pay $150 per year, and the city takes full responsibility for maintaining the sidewalks. 

This fall, the work crews appeared in my corner of town. They surveyed existing conditions, using spray paint to indicate which sections needed to be replaced, which ones could be leveled without replacement (grinding down small ledges, etc.), and which sections needed more careful work to deal with underlying tree roots or other complications. A few days later, the traffic cones appeared, and everyone moved their cars out of the way. The crews generally did a few block faces at a time: removing the old sidewalk with a small excavator and laying wooden forms on day one, pouring the new sidewalk sections on day two, and cleaning up on day three. It took less than two weeks to repair the entire neighborhood (about 90 blocks).

On its face, this is a pretty mundane story. City repairs infrastructure, “yawn.”

But what I didn’t anticipate is how excited everyone in the neighborhood was about this, how much it was the “talk of the town” for weeks. When the crews arrived on our block, we came out to say hello and thank them for their work.

An often-overlooked advantage of this type of program is how strongly it benefits from economies of scale.

By bundling sidewalk repairs across entire neighborhoods rather than handling them only when properties are sold, a municipality can significantly reduce per-unit costs. Crews, equipment, materials and traffic control are mobilized once and spread across many properties, while bulk purchasing and standardized repairs further improve efficiency. What can cost a homeowner thousands when addressed individually becomes far more affordable when managed collectively, turning sidewalk maintenance into a predictable, low-cost public service.

Failing infrastructure like cracked sidewalks hurts curb appeal, threatens safety and mobility, and generally annoys residents. A small fee and a proactive, competent approach to finding and repairing trouble spots in a comprehensive way might be a solution that other municipalities could replicate.

Photo by Beng Ragon on Unsplash