Sally Flocks

President & CEO, PEDS

ProWalk / ProBike 2010

Paying for Paying for

Sidewalk MaintenanceSidewalk Maintenance

Whose Responsibility?

Well-maintained sidewalks may be one of the most important ways to keep massive numbers of older people in good enough health to not be institutionalized.

Dan Burden

www.pedbikeimages.orgDan Burden

By 2030 one out of five people will be over 60.

Most will live an additional 20 – 25 years. www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden

www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden

One out of three people over 65

has severe disabilities.

Broken sidewalks create tripping hazardsand block access to people with disabilities.

Public sidewalks . . . are a service, program, or activity of the City within the meaning of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and are subject to program accessibility regulations.

Barden v. Sacramento, 2003

Broken sidewalks also put cities at risk of Broken sidewalks also put cities at risk of high cost legal settlements.high cost legal settlements.

Online tools make it easy for people to report broken sidewalks.

Updates from users enable PEDS to track agencies’

response rates.

Perhaps because sidewalks fail gradually . . .

many cities have neglected sidewalk repairs

and have let neighborhoods become less walkable.

Does gradual decay

explain cities’ willingness

to neglect sidewalk

maintenance?

Or is lack of political will to enforce

unfair and unrealistic funding expectations

a more accurate explanation?

How do cities pay for sidewalk repair?

0

10

20

30

40

50

Property ownerpays full cost

City shares costwith property

owner

City pays full cost

Survey of 82 cities in 45 statesDonald Shoup, “Fixing Broken Sidewalks” Access, Spring 2010

Sidewalks are public assets.Sidewalks are public assets.

Cities don’t ask

property owners to

repair potholes on

their streets.

Why, then do they

delegate sidewalk

maintenance to

abutting property

owners?

Delegating sidewalk repair costs is unfair Delegating sidewalk repair costs is unfair to property owners.to property owners.

Property owners lack control over what happens on the public right of way.

When sidewalks are on just one side of the street,

should property owners on the other side get a free ride?

Why should owners of corner lots pay double?

Should responsibility for sidewalk maintenance be in the hands of those with

authority to ticket parking violators?

Pedestrians should

not have to endure

hazardous sidewalks

wherever abutting

property owners

cannot afford to hire

a contractor.

Delegating sidewalk maintenance to Delegating sidewalk maintenance to

property owners is unfair to pedestrians.property owners is unfair to pedestrians.

Damaged sidewalks often span multiple properties in the same block. Fixing these in a piecemeal way is far more expensive than repairing them on a block by block or neighborhood basis.

Delegating responsibility to property owners Delegating responsibility to property owners increases maintenance costs.increases maintenance costs.

 

Repairing sidewalks in a timely manner is much cheaper than replacing them.

• This estimate was based on limited

sampling in commercial areas of

the city only.

• Surveys by volunteers suggest

that far more sidewalks need

repair on neighborhood streets,

especially in older parts of the City.

Atlanta Public Works estimates Atlanta Public Works estimates

that 25 percent of the City’s sidewalks that 25 percent of the City’s sidewalks

need to be repaired or replaced.need to be repaired or replaced.

Many sidewalks in Atlanta have not been repaired since they were built 60 – 110 years ago.

In 2004 the City of Atlanta kicked off a In 2004 the City of Atlanta kicked off a program to educate property owners about program to educate property owners about their responsibility to pay for fixing sidewalks their responsibility to pay for fixing sidewalks that abut their property.that abut their property.

During the four years that followed, the City collected only $200,000 from property owners to pay for sidewalk repairs.

At that rate, it would take 1,600 years to At that rate, it would take 1,600 years to address the estimated $80 million backlog.address the estimated $80 million backlog.

Based on constituent complaints, we know that many of our sidewalks are in poor condition, yet it is a challenge to estimate what the true capital requirements are.

The actual length of sidewalks in the City of Atlanta is unknown. Their age and quality is also unknown.

The Commissioner of Public Works is authorized to cite a

property owner for failure to maintain a sidewalk and – if

the property owner fails to comply – can order the repairs

and bill the owner for the cost.

However, it has been the City policy not to site

property owners unless funding is available to execute

the repairs; since funding has not been available in

recent years, few citations have been issued.

Is this what it takes?

“Atlanta Public Schools is prohibited from repairing and replacing

sidewalks on city property due to the constitutional requirement

that school funds be allocated only for educational purposes.”

What about sidewalks abutting public property?

Nice try, but . . .

Decatur uses tax dollars to pay for repairs.

Houston’s Safe Sidewalk Program pays for sidewalk repairs as well as new sidewalks.

Los Angeles no longer cites property owners and rarely repairs sidewalks.

Portland is one of the only cities with an effective property owner-funded repair program.

In Los Angeles, 4,600 of the city’s 10,750 miles of sidewalks

need some degree of repair at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion.

Despite this backlog, the city fixed an average of only 67 miles

of sidewalks a year between 2000 and 2008.

Los Angeles followed the state code [requiring property owners

to maintain sidewalks] until 1973, when federal funds became

available to repair sidewalks at no cost to property owners.

Three years later, when the federal funds ran out,

Los Angeles was left with no sidewalk repair program.

When the city attempted to reinstate the previous policy

of citing property owners, owners objected to the

“new” mandate and the city halted citations.

Short of money, Los Angeles made only temporary asphalt

patches to cracked sidewalks or – more often– did nothing at all.

“Portland’s system is pretty good, but the problem is the funding for sidewalk inspections has been cut and cut and cut, so it is not working like it used to.  But the way it used to work was great.”

Ellen Vanderslice, City of Portland  

Transportation oversees the maintenance of sidewalks, curbs,

and corners, while abutting property owners are responsible

for maintaining sidewalks.

The City maintains over 37,000 corners and over 3,200 miles of curbs.

The City has the responsibility to inspect the safety of over 8,600,000

square yards of city sidewalks. . . . Bureau inspectors assess

sidewalks and notify the property owner of needed repairs. In the

event repairs are not made by the property owner, Transportation

Maintenance hires a private contractor to make the repairs and bills

the property owner for the repairs.

Identifying, implementing & financing sidewalk repairs

Portland Atlanta

Code requires abutting property owners to pay for sidewalk repairs

Inspects curbs and pays for repairs

Proactive sidewalk inspection

Notifies property owner of needed repairs Rarely/ reactive

Makes repairs prior to billing property owner

Provides long-term, low-interest loans

Billing combined with property tax

Low poverty rate

 

“I am really struggling to get communities in Georgia to take sidewalk safety seriously. . . .Their favorite answer is "we don't have sidewalk repair in the budget" or "we have to cut our budget next year; so, we can't add any new items like sidewalk repairs to it.”    

Todd Fulk, Georgia Safe Sidewalks

How should How should cities pay for cities pay for sidewalk sidewalk maintenance?maintenance?

The ADA will force cities to do what they should be doing anyway: maintain public infrastructure.

Donald Shoup, Fixing Broken Sidewalks

Are lawsuits the only strategy that works?

making metro Atlanta safe and accessiblefor all pedestrians

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