Valley Getting Smaller Share for Street Repairs

Mayor Richard Riordan has shifted millions of dollars in street repair money from richer to poorer neighborhoods, a little-noticed change that has reduced the share of funding for the Westside and San Fernando Valley, and increased it for South and Central Los Angeles.

All areas of the city are receiving more street repair money than last year, officials said. But the new policy allocates all of the new funds based on which City Council districts have the highest concentrations of poor residents.

“The mayor’s position is that he wants improvement to go to low-income neighborhoods that need it the most,” said Peter Hidalgo, a Riordan spokesman.

But the change has already drawn questions from some council members who have asked the Riordan administration for a detailed analysis of the new program.

“This process is not yet over,” Councilman Alex Padilla said. “My council district will not be shortchanged.”

Padilla’s 7th District in the northeast Valley incurred a drop from 8.6% last fiscal year to 5.3% this year.

Five of seven council districts in the Valley are incurring drops in their share of funding for repairs by city crews, compared with the old system, which was based largely on the number of miles of streets in each district.

Overall, the seven Valley districts received 43.3% of the citywide street repair funds this year, down from 55.4% of the money received last year. If the Valley districts had received the same proportion as last year, they would have received nearly $6 million more than the $21.4 million they got this year.

Two districts in South and Central Los Angeles had big jumps in their share of the tax pie, with the 8th District doubling its proportion to 7.6%, and the 15th District jumping from 5.3 to 6.3%.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said he is grateful his 8th District is getting $3.8 million, up from $1.1 million last year, allowing the city to pave 16 miles of streets, triple last year’s work.

“Clearly the attention is deserved,” Ridley-Thomas said. “It is fair to say there is a correlation between the portions of the city with older streets and their social economic status.”

In contrast, the 3rd District in the west San Fernando Valley, which received 9.7% last year, received 5.9% this year, and the 11th District, which extends from Pacific Palisades to the West Valley, dropped from 10.4%--the largest proportion of any district--to 6.7%.

The figures cover funds for street resurfacing and reconstruction by city workers, amounting to more than 90% of all such expenditures. Despite repeated requests, city officials could not provide details on the rest of the funding, used to hire private contractors to do road work.

About 220 miles of streets will be repaved this year, contrasted with the 150 miles budgeted last year. The 70 extra miles are being allocated based on poverty, said Greg Scott, director of the city’s Street Services Bureau.

Riordan has proposed repaving 25 more miles of streets next year, and Scott said they will be allocated based on income.

Padilla’s northeast Valley district, which includes pockets of poor neighborhoods, saw the amount of money provided for streets increase from $2.5 million last year to $2.6 million this year, increasing the resurfacing and reconstruction work from 9.84 miles to 12.08 miles.

But overall, the budget for street repairs rose $20 million, to $49 million, and the amount of work increased from 162 to 220 miles.

Aides for Councilwoman Laura Chick met Thursday with Scott to discuss concerns on why her West Valley district this year will receive four fewer miles of repaving compared with last year.

Afterward, Chick blasted what she called the “very complicated, mushy explanation of how these decisions are made,” adding she was especially concerned that only a few small areas of her district are getting money because they are low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

“It doesn’t make sense necessarily to do it by income level, because that doesn’t necessarily tell you about the conditions of the streets,” Chick said.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski said she is not concerned.

“We’re all going to get more money, so the fact that some are going to get a little higher proportion is not something we are going to fuss about,” Miscikowski said.