Oakland hires contractors to come out and fix sidewalk damage caused by "City trees" around the City. Before the contractors come out, an inspector marks the sidewalks up and down the street with white spray paint. The paint indicates where repairs are supposed to begin and end.
I came home one day to find the sidewalk in front of our house marked up with white spray paint. I didn't realize what this was about until I walked up and down the street and saw paint wherever there were cracks in the sidewalk that were close to a tree. It wasn't initially clear whether they were going to do the driveway, though the driveway was also marked up with spray paint. I heard a rumor that they were going to require us to pay them to fix the driveway and that we would get a bill that we had to pay before they would start.
Turned out the rumor was false. On one Friday, "no parking" signs popped up on the street in front of our house for the following week. Something was about to happen and we hadn't gotten any bill or other notice in the mail at all (from the City or from anyone else).
I suspect the lack of notice (or any due process at all) would miff some folks. But our sidewalk and driveway were a real mess and we were excited about the possibility that this would get fixed without having to go out and find a contractor.
That said, we remained concerned about the possibility for horror stories and inconvenience. What would this be like?
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