In November 2020, Ismael Soto Luna, 59, was crossing the road in Van Nuys when a 2-pound metal cap fell from a nearby lamppost, hitting him on the head and knocking him to the ground. He suffered a fractured skull.
According to a lawsuit filed against the city, the man later suffered a brain injury, his symptoms worsened over time, and he was diagnosed with dementia and required 24-hour care. Earlier this year, the city of Los Angeles agreed to pay $21 million to settle Luna’s lawsuit.
During the trial, a liability expert hired by Luna’s attorney, Arash Zavetian, said he reviewed thousands of city documents and found no standards for regularly testing lights. . Zabetian said the city did not address the danger even after Luna was injured. Within a few blocks of the corner where the plaintiff was injured, about half the utility pole caps were loose or missing and had already fallen off.
Los Angeles is going bankrupt, and paying reparations for such dangerous conditions is one of the reasons. The city is being asked for more than $47 million in the first three months of the fiscal year alone to settle lawsuits and claims for injuries and other incidents on public property. This money will go to people who trip over broken sidewalks, hit their bikes on crumbling asphalt, damage property due to potholes or falling tree branches, or have other accidents involving city infrastructure. paid.
Of course, no city can completely prevent tree branches from falling on cars or instantly repair all potholes. But in Los Angeles, massive backlogs of basic maintenance are hurting residents and driving up liability costs. Sidewalk restoration typically takes 10 years or more. Street trees are only pruned about once every 15 years. Half of the city’s roads need to be repaved, and about 15% are considered to be failing.
The city is also far behind in basic maintenance of streetlights, like the one where Luna was injured. Miguel Sangalan, director of the Street Lighting Department, said the goal is to inspect the lights once every 10 years. The city responds to reports of burnt out lights, but repairs can take more than six months.
The city is considering borrowing $80 million to repay a portion of judgments and settlements as compensation payments skyrocket due to employment issues and cases involving police use of force and negligence. . At current rates, it would cost an additional $20 million in interest, leaving the city paying a total of $100 million just to settle the lawsuit rather than address the underlying problem.
“Rather than actually fixing the infrastructure, we’re using it to cover the liability costs caused by crumbling infrastructure,” said Jessica Meany, executive director of the nonprofit Investing in Place. They are being asked to borrow money,” he lamented.
This is not a new problem. For years, the city has not budgeted enough to properly maintain roads, lighting, sidewalks, trees, and public infrastructure. Lawsuits and ballot measures are often needed to force city leaders to prioritize safety and repairs. In fact, in 2015, the city of Los Angeles agreed to spend $30 million a year to repair broken sidewalks only after residents with disabilities sued the city.
However, the order backlog did not decrease much. The audit found that the city spent $12 million in fiscal year 2020 resolving injury claims and lawsuits, nearly half of its sidewalk repair budget.
Meaney and other advocates are urging L.A. to implement the Capital Infrastructure Plan, a multi-year budget roadmap for investing in and maintaining public assets. Los Angeles is the only major U.S. city without a city, which forces its public works department to compete for funding each year.
One example is the Street Lighting Authority. The agency doesn’t have the staff or budget to regularly inspect street lights to identify dangerously loose caps or other problems, or to quickly repair burnt-out or damaged street lights. The agency derives most of its funding from taxes paid by property owners in streetlight assessment districts, but 90% of assessed values have not increased since 1996. One way or another, the agency is expected to manage 220,000 street lights with an unchanged flow of funding. Add in almost 30 years plus everything the City Council and Mayor can appropriate each budget cycle.
LA can’t keep budgeting like this. The city is long overdue for a comprehensive plan outlining its infrastructure needs and costs, including regular maintenance and improvements to public works such as bus stops, landscaped medians, and protected bike lanes. It was. Then the City Council and Mayor can prioritize projects and commit to spending, or seek more funding through bonds or tax measures to deliver what Angelenos should expect from a world-class city. can.
Last month, Mayor Karen Bass announced that city staff would develop a multi-year investment plan to coordinate maintenance and improvements. Her Executive Order 9 establishes a Capital Planning Steering Committee to help deliver infrastructure projects faster and at lower cost.
It’s a good idea, but planning and prioritization can’t happen behind closed doors. Bass and City Council need to do this work publicly so the public, including neighborhood associations, advocates, and business leaders, knows what to expect and can hold city leaders accountable. There is.
Los Angeles has under-invested in infrastructure for decades. Residents are paying the price in high compensation and embarrassingly dilapidated roads, sidewalks, and other public works.
