Each year, our Good Neighbor Awards honor some of the dedicated neighbors who volunteer their time to help seniors and people with disabilities get the resources and support they need to age and thrive in their own homes and neighborhoods. We are delighted to honor Juliet as our 2020 Good Neighbor Honoree for the Sidewalk Search Party.
Juliet Rothman got interested in the sidewalk search party in November because she did some work with sidewalk issues for DAAS.
In April, she answered a call to action to join the Duck Squad! At first, she was hesitant about participating because she couldn’t print the duck and wasn’t on Facebook. But after we got over the technology issues, Juliet became energized about the project and sought to learn how the city fixes sidewalks.
She reached out to 311 to determine what makes a broken sidewalk. She was appalled that the city only inspects sidewalks every 25 years! So she just started taking pictures of “quacked” sidewalks on her own walks.
She wanted to have a bigger impact, so she sought more community involvement. She shared suggestions of how to take the pictures, her supplies and how to report them to the city. That led right into the “Broken sidewalks quack me up” contest. She even won second place for The Most Bumpiest Walkways.
Now, she’s getting the community involved in getting sidewalks fixed. She wants people who talk with their community groups in their neighbors to take “quacked” sidewalk pictures. You may hear from her soon!
All of this comes as Juliet had many life challenges during the year, which limited her ability to go on walks. But she never stopped working on this project because of how it will benefit so many others.