New Sidewalks for the City of Los Angeles

Members of SEIU Local 721 Help Develop and Push Innovate Programs to Repair LA City Sidewalks

             
LA city workers are leading in the creation of innovative programs to fix thousands of miles of LA’s broken sidewalks while saving city residents money, creating good new jobs with family-supporting wages and benefits, and making the streets accessible to walkers, joggers, parents with strollers, the elderly and disabled.

“When we leave the job the sidewalk is nice and flat again. That’s a good feeling,” says John De La O, an Equipment Operator in Street Services.

By California law, residential property owners are responsible for maintenance and repair of their sidewalks. Years of planting fast-growing shade trees in LA have led to an unintended cost: miles of treacherous sidewalks broken by the roots of parkway trees. Meanwhile federal funding for sidewalk repair, once sporadic, has dried up completely, leaving LA with 6,500 miles of sidewalks in desperate need of repair.

This involves crews like John’s first removing the broken sidewalk using heavy equipment such as backhoes. Then Street Tree is called in to access the root problem and whether to grind the roots or cut them. They also trim the canopy of tree branches to help balance the tree. “It’s very rare that we’ll remove a tree,” says John. “Only if it’s a safety hazard.” Each tree removal must first be approved by the City Council, and another tree must be planted in its place or nearby.

SEIU Local 721 helped City Council member Wendy Greuel develop the tremendously successful 50/50 plan in which the City splits costs of sidewalk repairs with property owners. To meet the need the City has hired additional crews to repair 92 miles of sidewalks per year. Hundreds of new workers have moved into city jobs through programs developed by SEIU.

A new “point-of-sale” program will allow homeowners to fix their sidewalks now, but pay for the work at the time they sell their house. A team including representatives from SEIU 721, real estate professionals, neighborhood council activists and city management if developing the pilot with the goal of a July 1, 2008 rollout. The team anticipates being able to hire 600 unskilled local workers in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Through the vocational program championed by SEIU they can transition into full-time civil service workers eligible for union membership.

Donald Shoup, Chair of the Urban Planning Department at UCLA, estimates that 400 miles of sidewalks could be repaired a year and at least 2,000 new jobs created. Early funding would come from money the city now sets aside to settle “trip and fall” lawsuits—which would diminish as sidewalks get repaired, so the program can help pay for itself while increasing public safety and quality of life.

The union, City Council members and city management have been working together to get the word out about this new approach to solving an old problem, by addressing neighborhood councils, public meetings, and through outreach to real estate professionals and advocates.

Around this time of year John De La O remembers one sidewalk that he and his crew repaired through the 50/50 program. “We got a call from a lady whose son Christopher was losing his vision. And there was the off-grade sidewalk that was uplifted in front of their house due to a root system.” John and his crew expedited the sidewalk repair, with the help of a friend who was a Supervisor in Street Tree.

“While we were there the lady brought her son out, a little kid. His name was Christopher. You could tell how excited he was to be around the construction equipment. We put him on the backhoe, put a hardhat on him.” 



The crew took a group photo with the boy. “The way the crew acts at work, we’re all macho. But yet when it came to this little kid you could tell everybody had a big heart.”

John mailed copies of the photo to the family. “She sent us a Christmas card. It was right around this time of year."

"It’s those kinds of jobs that really make us feel good.”

City residents interested in participating in either the 50/50 or “Point-of-sale” sidewalk repair programs should call 311, the City of Los Angeles toll free number to access information and non-emergency services.