# Does Your City Need a 'Department of Sidewalks'? (Michael Pollack)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-brake-a-streetsblog-podcast-5075089/does-your-city-need-a-department-of-sidewalks-michael-pollack
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-brake-a-streetsblog-podcast-5075089/does-your-city-need-a-department-of-sidewalks-michael-pollack.md
Podcast: [The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-brake-a-streetsblog-podcast-5075089)
Published: 2026-06-02T05:01:00+00:00
Episode link: https://c6996bab-7d65-40aa-9d55-25a5764b8343.libsyn.com/does-your-city-need-a-department-of-sidewalks-michael-pollack
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/c6996bab-7d65-40aa-9d55-25a5764b8343/Inside_The_Wild_World_of_Sidewalk_Law_Michael_Pollack_-_6126_2.46PM.mp3?dest-id=3298079
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Duration seconds: 2084

## Resource

A sidewalk isn't just a strip of asphalt; it's a place where countless laws collide, whether they're governing our movement, our safety, our right to free speech, our economy, or even just who's responsible for shoveling after a snow storm. But most communities don't have a single agency that manages all these competing concerns — and maybe it's time they create one. Today on The Brake, we interview sidewalk law expert Michael Pollack about his new book "Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America's Most Overlooked Resource." And in that book, he untangles the dense web of policies that shape our pedestrian spaces, which might just change the way you look at sidewalks forever.

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