Thursday, February 23, 2012

Where the Sidewalk Ends

It's been an ongoing, well-documented problem that the Big Labor/Illegal Alien Democrat City of Los Angeles has crumbling infrastructure. A good example? The city has been unable to get the residential street sidewalks into shape. This is especially shameful in a city that takes money from drivers and uses that money to cajole people into not driving their automobiles, but rather take taxpayer-subsidized transit (which means walking), bicycling, and walking.

Not only do the crumbling sidewalks degrade neighborhoods, they open the city to personal injury claims and lawsuits by people taking full advantage of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The solution, according to some? Abandon the public-property sidewalks to the nearby property owners, or at least "tax" the sale of property in order to fix the nearby sidewalk. After all of these years of neglecting the sidewalks despite taking money from taxpayers, property owners, and developer supposedly for the purpose of maintaining the sidewalks (along with the roads), the city leaders want to throw up their hands.

I support private roads maintained with private funds, with the understanding that there will either be some public roads or at least easements over private roads for the sake of defense, law enforcement, and emergency services. But if a street and its sidewalk is going to be government-owned, it should be maintained by that government.

But this is the dysfunction you get with a Democrat-controlled city in a Democrat-contolled county in a Democrat-controlled state.

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