Latest proposal to handle L.A.'s crumbling sidewalks*

sidewalk.jpgThe idea is to document what needs to be fixed - a project that would take three years and cost $10 million - and then ask voters to pass a bond measure to pay for the repairs. The plan is being pushed by Miguel Santana, the city's top budget official, who has been on a crusade to create new sources of revenue for the cash-strapped city. Santana is also recommending tax hikes. Since the inspection would take so long, it might be 2017 before a bond measure makes it to the ballot. From the LAT:

L.A.'s patchwork of decaying walkways look more like skateboard ramps than sidewalks in some places. With some lifted as high as 10 inches from the curb, the city has become a target for some 2,500 "trip and fall" claims per year. Larger legal challenges have come from wheelchair users, who say a gauntlet of broken sidewalks violates the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. The last year that money was devoted to removing and replacing damaged sidewalks was 2007-2008, when the city spent $6 million to fix 26 miles, public works officials said.

*LAT correction: Budget director Miguel Santana has not taken a position.


More by Mark Lacter:
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Those awful infographics that promise to explain and only distort
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Council members at large (photo)
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Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
The multi-talented Mark Lacter
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