Trees are nice that line our street. I remember when the city first planted them. Everyone thought there was enough space between the road edge and the sidewalks that the roots from the trees would never cause a problem. Well, the road has had bumps and has been resurfaced a couple of times since the trees grew huge, and most of the sidewalks are in poor shape. I had to call sidewalk contractors in Bronx NY to have our sidewalks replaced. The city took care of the roads. The property owners take care of the sidewalks.
We had to get rid of the trees and pretty much have some major excavation done to clean out the roots that have been buckling and cracking the sidewalks. Some of the buckling is a foot high! It is an extreme trip hazard. If someone falls, then the liability insurance of the homeowner pays. It does not matter who planted the trees initially. The repair and maintenance of the sidewalks is the responsibility of the property owners.
We have a lot more people walking and riding bikes and jogging now than we have had for as long back as I can remember. I can remember as a child having more kids playing outdoors, but now we have families walking together and riding bicycles. Lots of people are walking their dogs too. Not all of them leave messes to clean up. I want to have nice level sidewalks for people to enjoy in front of my house. There is that weird half ownership thing with public sidewalks. Homeowners have to keep them up, but you have to let anyone walk on them. Sure, I would really like it if people would always clean up after their dogs, but I can’t stop them from walking by the house on the sidewalk. I will just make it nice again, plant some trees that do not grow really tall and hope that the new concrete sidewalks last for many decades.