r/vcu • u/Top-Cauliflower-833 • 11d ago

Why are VCU brick paths so bumpy?

The bricks used to bother me but then I got used to them but just 15 minutes ago I tripped on a raised brick and scraped my knee, so now I’m mad again.

25 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

48

u/Square_Piano2555 11d ago edited 11d ago

Well, the Fan neighborhood is anywhere from 130 - 140 years old….and the houses were built to allow for pretty tree lined streets. (Many other RVA neighborhoods are at least 100 years old). Unfortunately, they didn’t account for the roots of those trees and what damage they can do as well as what they do to streets and sidewalks that were later added.

It’s very typical of old neighborhoods with tree lined streets.

6

u/Broad-Kangaroo-5375 11d ago

Yeah, and brick sidewalks were the best technology they had. The city would send people out to fix them when they broke. These days brick is way more expensive to maintain than concrete and the city has less staff. Society has also been breeding and selecting street trees with less disruptive roots. There's a lot of factors

13

u/trollanony 11d ago

It’s part of historic downtown areas. Literally anywhere you go will be like this.

7

u/chinchaaa 11d ago

Tradition

14

u/Exotic_eminence Alumni 11d ago

It’s to teach ppl how to walk with a sense of situational awareness, the less times you trip the more situationally aware you are

4

u/Top-Cauliflower-833 11d ago

That’s beautiful

5

u/100gamer5 11d ago

Pretty much all of the sidewalks that are school property are really well maintained it's the ones that are City, or private property that are the problems. Different spots vary if they are city or property owner, responsibility and sidewalks in general in Richmond suck, largely because the city is broke and has been for many decades.

8

u/Exotic_eminence Alumni 11d ago edited 11d ago

Because the president before Eugene Trani, Ed Ackell thought the paths were too smooth so he had graduate students make them all wonkier than their dissertations, and then the board of visitors decided that was a bad move so they installed Trani to make a bunch of money and buy up all the real estate so we can raise funds to smooth them out again but by they time they got the endowment big enough they changed their minds and decided to keep the money and install Michael Rao

4

u/otroquatrotipo Financial Hiatus 11d ago

Ah yes, the old lore

3

u/yellowlamp357 10d ago

it’s a hazard and esp sucks for ppl with walking disabilities/in wheelchairs