Add my name to the list of people who’d like to see the end of brick sidewalks. Never mind ice; just rain will cause bricks to become treacherously slippery – I’ve slipped several times, even wearing sneakers. But whenever I think of brick sidewalks, I remember a day when my husband and I left a restaurant in Portland’s Old Port after a snowshower deposited about an inch of fluffy snow on the city. My attention was drawn to a group of several people on the sidewalk across the street. Suddenly one of the women slipped and fell, and to my dying day I will remember the sickening sound of her head hitting the brick sidewalk.
I do not know what happened to her, but I would not be surprised if her skull was fractured. Abandoning our plan to explore the stores of the Old Port, we carefully shuffled our way back to the parking garage and drove home.
We do not come to Portland (or to Portsmouth, New Hampshire) during the winter, when walking the city can be dangerous or even deadly. Get rid of the bricks!
Fran Holly
Kittery Point
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