City of Los Angeles – Sidewalks workgroup

The City of Los Angeles has not had a comprehensive repair program since the 1970’s. It’s estimated that over half the City’s 11,500 miles of sidewalk are broken. In April 2015, the City of LA settled a $1.4B ADA sidewalk lawsuit. As that lawsuit settlement is finalized and moves forward the City of Los Angeles will adopt policies and a prioritization and funding plan to fix these sidewalks. (See our memo with our policy recommendations and background on the issue).

Investing in Place is working with partners to advocate for policies that:

• Establishes sidewalks as a core foundation of the City’s transportation network.
• Requires the City to commit to developing an inventory of existing and missing sidewalks and creates a citywide sidewalk strategic plan.
• Utilizes the City’s Vision zero high injury network, social equity, public health metrics, pedestrian volume and transit use data to establish a prioritization plan for repairs.
• Leverages the potential 2016 Los Angeles County transportation sales tax revenue to accelerate the repair program to fix the City’s sidewalks in 10 years, not the proposed 30 years.
• Leveraged existing City infrastructure grants to achieve multiple benefits including, but not limited to; implementing pedestrian safety improvements, stormwater capture, and tree preservation/replanting.
• Supports meaningful community participation.

Last week we convened a conference call (see our meeting notes) with partners and as a result forming a workgroup. Our next meeting is on Wednesday 10/21 from 10am – 11am in downtown LA.  If you are interested in joining this workgroup and/or attending this meeting please email jessica@investinginplace.org.