By Donald Shoup | September 10, 2024 | LA Times
Los Angeles’ broken sidewalks are like an obstacle course, especially for people with disabilities. They are bad enough to challenge the Olympic athletes who will show up in four years.
In 2016, to settle an Americans With Disabilities Act lawsuit, Los Angeles committed to spending $1.4 billion over 30 years to make its sidewalks accessible. But a 2021 audit by the Los Angeles Controller’s Office revealed that since 2016, the city had repaired less than 1% of sidewalks. During that period, the city paid more than $35 million in settlements related to sidewalk injuries.
Donald Shoup is a distinguished research professor in urban planning at UCLA.
