English Ivy - Weed or beautiful garden accent?

I wrote an earlier article about the changes I wanted to make to my landscape. I did an internet search to find out how I might cut English English Ivy to make, well... more English Ivy. I've learned quite a bit. For example, in some areas of the country English Ivy is considered.a weed.  Needless to say, I find that somewhat depressing.  My initial plan was to line the sides of the sidewalk with Ivy.  I found a beautiful picture of this in a gardening book.  But, now that some consider it a weed I'm not sure what to do. No one wants to decorate with weeds. 

 So what do you think? Are you familiar with the English Ivy controversy? I guess the big argument against it is that it is a nonnative species and has no natural enemies. As a gardner is that really a bad thing? I know that it can be invasive because I had previously attempted to remove it from my garden. Since it is so hard to kill it seemed like an idea ground cover to me. But, like I said, no one wants to hear about the fact they are growing weeds. Some states are looking at possible bans on the stuff.

If you have a better idea of what would look good in place of the ivy for lining sidewalks, I'm all ears. I should note however, it needs to be relatively inexpensive. One of the draws of the Ivy was that I could learn how to use the cuts from it and thus it wouldn't cost much at all except for minor things like some soil to build it up a little.