For the first time in decades, Los Angeles has a real opportunity to reform how it plans, funds, and manages the sidewalks, streets, parks, and public spaces that millions of people rely on every day.
In October 2024, Mayor Karen Bass issued Executive Directive #9: Streamlining Capital Project Delivery and Equitably Investing in the Public Right-of-Way (ED #9), launching an effort to develop Los Angeles’ first comprehensive Capital Infrastructure Program (CIP). The directive recognizes something many Angelenos experience every day: the condition of our public spaces reflects the systems used to manage them.
ED #9 establishes an important framework for improving transparency, coordination, and equity in how infrastructure investments are made. Key commitments include engaging the disability community in planning and maintaining public spaces, directing investments toward underserved communities, and supporting workforce development and local hiring.
Most importantly, it begins the process of developing a five-year Capital Infrastructure Program, a tool used by cities across the country to align priorities, budgets, and project delivery over time.
This matters because Los Angeles currently lacks a long-term system for planning and managing infrastructure.
The result is visible throughout the city.
Half of LA’s sidewalks are in disrepair. More than 200,000 tree wells sit empty. Streetlights remain broken. Accessibility improvements move slowly. Public restrooms are scarce. Bus shelters, shade, and basic public amenities remain unevenly distributed across neighborhoods.
These are not isolated problems. They are symptoms of a system that has historically made infrastructure decisions one project, one budget cycle, and one department at a time.
A Capital Infrastructure Program creates an opportunity to approach these challenges differently.
Instead of reacting to problems individually, a CIP helps cities understand needs comprehensively, establish priorities, coordinate across departments, and make investments based on long-term goals and available resources. It gives city staff a multi-year work plan and provides the public with greater visibility into what is being funded, when projects will be delivered, and how decisions are made.
At its best, a CIP helps shift infrastructure planning from a reactive process to a strategic one.
This is ultimately about more than sidewalks, parks, or streetlights.
It is about how Los Angeles stewards public resources, serves its residents, and creates accountability around public investment.
For too long, infrastructure planning has often been fragmented across departments, funding streams, and political priorities. A comprehensive Capital Infrastructure Program offers an opportunity to create greater coordination and transparency while helping the city make clearer decisions about what gets funded and why.
The timing is significant.
With the World Cup, Super Bowl, and Olympic and Paralympic Games approaching, Los Angeles has a rare opportunity to strengthen the systems that support public infrastructure long after these events have passed. The question is not simply how the city prepares for these moments, but whether it uses them to build lasting capacity.
Meaningful systems change is never easy. It requires leadership, coordination, public trust, and sustained commitment. But the alternative is to continue addressing infrastructure challenges one project at a time while the underlying problems remain unresolved.
Executive Directive #9 creates an opportunity to think differently.
The condition of our sidewalks, streets, parks, and public spaces is not simply a reflection of maintenance needs. It is a reflection of how the city organizes itself to plan, fund, and deliver public infrastructure.
Every broken sidewalk, dark streetlight, empty tree well, or inaccessible curb ramp points to a larger question about how Los Angeles governs and cares for the public realm.
The sidewalks may be broken.
The city doesn’t have to be.
