THE Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, April 1, agreed to spend more than $1 billion to repair the city’s sidewalks as part of a lawsuit settlement filed by residents who say the walkways are inaccessible to disabled individuals.
“Despite its awareness for the past several years of the city’s broken system of sidewalks and consequential denial of meaningful access for persons with mobility disabilities,” the lawsuit stated, “the city has failed to develop or implement a plan to effectively address the problem.”
An estimated 40 percent of Los Angeles’ 10,750 miles of walkways require attention.
Under the agreement, the city will fix its broken and deteriorating sidewalks torn up by tree roots, install curb ramps and install accessible sidewalks where they do not exist, Guy Wallace, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
The repairs will take place throughout a 30-year period, during which officials expect 100,000 new curb ramps to be built across the city. Priority, however, remains on improving sidewalks.
“All those stretches where sidewalk segments are broken up by trees and are just really messed up – I think we’ve all seen them, even if you’re a visitor you see them, and you see them in short order after you leave LAX, too, let me tell you that – those will all be fixed,” Wallace said.
Lillibeth Navarro, executive director of Communities Actively Living Independent and Free, who was part of the lawsuit, said the disabled “risked their lives and safety” traveling across Los Angeles sidewalks, according to Los Angeles Daily News.
“Many of our people have suffered frustration, pain and even injury from their valiant efforts and insistence that the streets be made accessible according to the Americans with Disabilities Act,” she said.
The settlement will help others in Los Angeles, she added.
“Mamas pushing baby carriages will not have to struggle. The elderly will not have to fall over just because they have an accident on the sidewalk,” she said.
The approximate $30 million the city will spend on sidewalks per year is mostly expected to come from the city’s general fund.
“This settlement directs taxpayer dollars to where they belong, to solving one of the city’s most longstanding problems rather than merely reacting when somebody is injured,” said LA City Attorney Mike Feuer.
Federal funds, however, can also be sought to pay for repairs, said Branimir Kvartuc, spokesman for City Councilman Joe Buscaino.
Paul Krekorian, chair of the city’s Budget and Finance Committee, said the settlement is a “win” for the city budget, noting sidewalk-injury claims cost Los Angeles pays $5 million each year.
“For decades, buckled sidewalks have plagued neighborhoods from the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay,” he said in a statement. “All of that is going to change starting today with the city’s historic commitment to fix our sidewalks and make them accessible to everyone.”
(With reports from ABC, Associated Press and Los Angeles Daily News)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend April 11-14, 2015 Sec. A pg.7)
