Repairing a Broken Program
Updated: Feb 6
L.A. Controller Ron Galperin released a new report analyzing the City’s sidewalk repair program and urging sweeping changes to get more walkways fixed. Controller Galperin found that less than 1% of the City’s sidewalks have been certified as repaired. Why so few? When it fixes a sidewalk, the City replaces the entire parcel — far more than it is legally required to do — making repairs more costly and time consuming than they should be. In addition, the current priority is to fix sidewalks next to City-owned facilities, leaving out L.A.’s residential neighborhoods and commercial centers. Controller Galperin also determined that the City is responding slowly to simple repair requests.