The Los Angeles City Council is scheduled to vote today on a plan to repair thousands of miles of broken sidewalks throughout Los Angeles.
The repair program proposed by councilmen Paul Krekorian and Joe Buscaino include surveying neighborhood councils, setting up a trust fund dedicated to repair projects and creating a map to identify problem sidewalks. The program would also look into a variety of strategies for funding the repairs, including offering loans or sharing the costs with property owners.
An estimated 4,600 miles of the city’s 11,000 miles of sidewalks need repairs, which could cost about $1.5 billion, officials say. The city budgeted $27 million this year to fix sidewalks next to city-owned property.
State law puts the responsibility of the repairs on the owner of the property next to the sidewalk. The city in the 1970s decided to take on repairs for sidewalks damaged by overgrown tree roots, but the program ran out of funds after two years while the list of broken sidewalks has grown.
The city is also the target of a class-action lawsuit that alleges the city has failed to give physically disabled people proper access to sidewalks.
