Terra Infirma

Stroll down a brick sidewalk, and you stumble upon an inevitable conclusion: The quaint paths may look historical, but the often jagged conditions are no fete for the feet. Wobbly sidewalks are part of the Boston experience, but there's a movement afoot to give bricks the boot.

In the rocky landscape of Faneuil Hall Marketplace, pedestrians experience the challenges of watching their steps. Crude bricks meet uneven granite slabs and bumpy cobblestones. For the disabled, the rigors of maneuvering around the Marketplace make it forbidden territory. "I can't go there," says John Kelly, a Boston access activist who's been using a wheelchair for 21 years. The area can also hinder the elderly, parents with strollers, women in spike heels, and anyone else with slippery shoes. Ann Hershfang, advocacy chairwoman of WalkBoston, a group that champions pedestrians, calls the terrain there "quite obnoxious."

Until my consciousness was raised, I blamed myself when I snagged on a bad brick and took a tumble. "After you fall, you stand up and you say, 'Stupid me. Why did I do that?' " says Christopher Hart of Adaptive Environments, a local firm specializing in accessible design. "But it's not you. It was the physical surface you were walking on."

According to Hart, Boston's love affair with the brick is fl awed. "Given the city's historic character, there is a tendency to opt for sidewalk surfaces that appear historic, even when the material used, frequently rough brick, has no historical validity," he says. "Rough bricks cause falls, are unpleasant for many people, and cause extreme vibrations when rolled across."

Yet developers, backed by preservationists, continue to build ye olde bumpy sidewalks. "In the last two or three years, brick is everywhere," says Hershfang. "I heard the Rose Kennedy Greenway is going to be full of brick," says Kelly. "They just don't stop."

WalkBoston and other groups urge the city to adopt sidewalk standards. And city leaders feel the pressure. "We've been really working on this for a while, but it's a complicated issue. Everybody wants something fancy where they live," says Stephen Spinetto, Boston's commissioner for persons with disabilities. Hershfang knows what her group wants: "If it's brick, it should be smooth brick."

So-called wire-cut or square-cut brick fits together evenly for a fl at surface. But Hart says developers are keen to use Old City Hall pavers, irregularly shaped bricks newly molded for an antique look. "The companies that make Old City Hall pavers have purposely made them more rough," he says.

"We're trending away from City Hall pavers," says Michael Muehe, executive director of the Cambridge Commission for Persons With Disabilities. "And we're urging that brick not be used as a primary walking surface." Concrete sidewalks with brick accents not only solve the walking and rolling problems, they are cheaper, too.

Such a design would work on Huntington Avenue, where a lumpy sidewalk built in 2003 with Old City Hall pavers poses an obstacle for well-heeled Boston Symphony-goers and wheelchair riders. The sidewalk there is the subject of a lawsuit by Kelly's Neighborhood Access Group. The state's Architectural Access Board agrees and has ordered the city to fix the misshapen walkways around Symphony Hall and Gainsborough Street. Initially, the city denied responsibility and pinned the blame on the MBTA, which built the sidewalk. Spinetto now promises the work will be done by July 1. Kelly holds out for concrete: "Concrete is the only guarantee of a smooth path of travel. They can put the brick near the edge, and we can all admire it from a distance."

Monica Collins writes biweekly. E-mail her at mcollins@globe.com.