From commercial outdoor dining and street vending to ADA accessibility, homelessness, delivery robots, and climate adaptation, almost every pressing issue facing local governance has a sidewalk component. Yet, despite their vital role in community connectivity and local economies, sidewalks remain one of the most splintered and botched public assets in American law.
On this episode of Mountain Money, hosts Roger Goldman and Kevin Kennedy explore this hidden public network with Michael Pollack, Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law and author of Sidewalk Nation: Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resource. Inspired by the surge in outdoor public life during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pollack traveled across the country—from New York City and Denver to Texas and New Orleans—to examine how different communities handle, maintain, and value the space beneath our feet.
