This entry marks the debut of a new, I hope recurring, feature: the Hall of Fame. Regular readers know that I already have a Hall of Shame. I thought I should balance it with a feature celebrating the unsung heroes who have, in some way, gone above and beyond for the cause of sidewalks in Lansing.

The homeowner on the northeast corner of Jones and Larned is apparently responsible for this “sidewalk” made of pavers. It picks up where the sidewalk abruptly ends on Larned and goes to Jones Street. Across Jones to the west, the official sidewalk resumes. Google Street View images of this block from 2011 show a deep furrow where people have been walking across the lawn to get from one disconnected sidewalk to the next, so a path was obviously sorely needed.

I find it really strange that the sidewalk ends about two lot widths from the edge of Jones, only to resume again after. I have no inside knowledge about how the city decides where sidewalks have to be installed, but I have noticed some patterns from which I have inferred rules, or at least rules of thumb. A block that has no houses facing it will usually not have a sidewalk. If a house is the last one on a block before a dead end or an unoccupied block, the sidewalk might end there. But if there is at least one house on a block, and somewhere else one might be walking to from there, it usually has a sidewalk all the way along. This gap on Larned is an anomaly, at least compared with the experiences I’ve had of east side sidewalks.

I wonder if the city would have granted the permit needed for the resident to just decide to install a proper sidewalk. They can compel an owner to install one (I’ve seen it in very old news articles), but can they forbid it? Would they be likely to, if someone wanted to pay for it? I don’t know. But as a “good enough” solution and a service to pedestrians, this “sidewalk” earns my respect. So won’t you join me in saluting the inaugural sidewalk Hall of Famer?