It cost CalTrans more than a billion dollars. Sacramento offered 20 percent of their annual transportation budget over the next 30 years. Now it looks like the city of Los Angeles might be the next mega-settlement over the deteriorating state of California’s sidewalks.
Safe, useable sidewalks and curbs are paramount to access for the disabled, and lawsuits have been successfully brought against many California cities. Los Angeles, which has already paid $85 million in two cases, has four more pending against them for the state of disrepair of the city’s sidewalks. It’s estimated that 42 percent, or 4,515 miles, of the city’s sidewalks are in ‘disrepair.’
Paying for the repairs might be problematic, as the city is already facing a $72 million deficit. However, should the rulings come against the city, they might not have much choice.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles may be the land of the freeway, but it is notorious for its bad sidewalks — buckled, cracked and sometimes impassable. By the city’s own estimate, 42% of its 10,750 miles of pedestrian paths are in disrepair.
Now a series of civil-rights lawsuits against Los Angeles and other California cities is for the first time focusing attention — and money — on a problem that decades of complaining, heated public hearings and letter-writing campaigns could not.
Read the full article here.