When City Councilor Gary Rosen proposed that Worcester look into getting rubber sidewalks, Pie and Coffee celebrated his unconventional vision, Buck Paxton argued against the idea, and Worcester Magazine mindlessly ridiculed him.
Then, in last week’s InCity Times, Gary Rosen wrote an article explaining the idea, and defending it against his critics:
While arborists, street department and city officials, and newspapers like the Boston Globe and In City Times think that the idea of rubber sidewalks has a great deal of merit, our Worcester Magazine called it “bizarre.” I know that we can be and should be more creative and innovative in Worcester.
The primary benefit of rubber sidewalks, as he describes them, is that they deal better with growing tree roots, bending rather than cracking.
Budding rubber sidewalk geeks will want to read the installation manual (pdf). The section “Releasing rubber sidewalk pavers” seems to indicate that swiping a section of sidewalk would be easy.