PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 27, 2026
The scene this winter, which got off to a cold and snowy start, has gone from hellscape to wonderland and back more than once. And we know, for at least the next month or so, it could happen again anytime.
1. Leave your Bean Boots at home. When you’re going to be navigating an icy or snowy urban environment on foot, choose something with better tread, or at least invest in traction devices to slip over them.
2. Beware of brick. In addition to their smooth surfaces being slicker to walk on than their concrete counterparts, complaints about their incompatibility with winter include that their grooves make them difficult to shovel and uneven spots are hard to see in snow.
3. Avoid steep streets. Seeing the glaze coating Cumberland Avenue from the bottom of Munjoy Hill one year I had to request the shortest-ever Uber ride to my apartment a couple blocks away.
4. Tell on your neighbors. Sidewalks that haven’t been shoveled are less predictable hazards, but there is something you can do about them — complain.
5. Heed the hedges. Some property owners shovel thin paths within the sidewalk, not taking into consideration their overgrown hedges, forcing pedestrians to sideways limbo in order to get by.
6. Work from home. Parking lots as the most common place people fall.
7. Consider the beach. If you still want to get your steps in, you might have better luck at the beach, the preferred winter walking locale of some. Even when snow accumulates there, an outgoing tide will clear a swath by the shore. Although walking on sand is not my idea of a good time, it beats falling on ice.
~ Leslie Bridgers