This is an illustration of the two ways the city deals with trip hazards in the sidewalk, on the north side of Elizabeth Street between Shepard and Leslie. The sidewalk slabs are frequently heaved up by trees, and some stretches of sidewalk on the east side resemble obstacle courses as a result. When someone cares enough to report a trip hazard, the city either uses asphalt to make a sort of ramp between the two pieces of walk, or grinds the sidewalk down until the edges are flush again.

The former approach is almost useless in my estimation. The asphalt almost always has a blunt enough edge to be its own trip hazard, and it ends up crumbling and getting even craggier over time. The grinding method works very well, making a wonderfully smooth transition. As a bonus it looks kind of neat, exposing the rock within the concrete and leaving behind an almost polished sheen.

I don’t know how the city decides which approach to use. The asphalt method is described as a “temporary fix,” but I’ve seen ones that have clearly been around for ages. The grinding method “is only appropriate for addressing trip hazards where the sidewalk section is otherwise intact (not cracked or broken),” which could explain why some spots get the asphalt instead, but I have seen plenty of asphalt patches on intact blocks. So I’m not sure why they don’t use the clearly superior grinding method more universally.