$5 Million Sought for Sidewalk Work

An official with the city’s Bureau of Street Service recommended Wednesday at a hearing of a Los Angeles City Council panel that $4.84 million for sidewalk construction and improvements be included in next year’s city operating budget.

If approved by the full council, it would be the first such allocation in more than two decades, officials said.

“This is the first time in 25 years that a request has been made to set aside money specifically for sidewalk repair,” said David Gershwin, communications deputy for Councilman Alex Padilla.

Still, Gershwin acknowledged that the allocation is part of a preliminary budget plan for fiscal year 2000-01 that must win council approval.

Sidewalk construction and repair have become a focal point for Padilla, who says broken, buckled and missing sidewalks diminish the quality of life in his northeast San Fernando Valley district.

“The questions I got over and over when I was campaigning for office were, ‘Are you going to fix the potholes?’ ‘Are you going to fix the street lights?’ ‘Are you going to fix the sidewalks?’ ” Padilla said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “In my district, this is the quickest way to make the biggest impact on the quality of life within my community.”

The freshman councilman introduced a motion in February calling for sidewalk repair and construction to be included in the city’s strategic plan to create curb cuts and ramps under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.

As a result, the city Bureau of Street Services in April drafted a strategic plan to combine both improvement plans.

The Los Angeles Commission on Disability is currently holding public hearings on the plan, said Sharon Morris, executive director of the city Department of Disability. One such hearing was held Wednesday at the Northeast Valley Senior Citizen Center in Pacoima.

The infusion of money for sidewalk repair and construction would be welcome to students at year-round Arminta Street Elementary School in North Hollywood who must walk along a busy section of Strathern Street that has no sidewalk.

“In order for the children to walk on a sidewalk, they would have to cross over to the other side,” said Robert Bauer, assistant principal at Arminta, watching families navigate the narrow path. “We are concerned about their safety because cars speed through here.”

The students’ safety becomes an even greater concern during winter when heavy rains and inadequate drains cause street flooding, Bauer said. As a precaution, students who would usually walk home stay on campus until their parents can pick them up.

“The greatest flooding occurs at Tujunga [Avenue] and Strathern,” Bauer said. “It fills up like a river.”