Los Angeles's Most Complained-About Sidewalks: Mapped

Los Angeles knows its sidewalks are, in many places, uneven, cracked, buckling, and potentially pretty dangerous. In April, after years of back and forth, the city committed to spending $31 to $63 million a year over the next 30 years to fix its miles of sidewalks, and, as this interactive map from the LA Times shows, they've got an immense task ahead of them. Between 2010 and 2014, the city got more than 19,000 requests for sidewalk repairs. Some sidewalks, like the one on Hill Street from Seventh to Eighth in Downtown, have gotten several service requests in that time. (That particular one received seven requests.)

By neighborhood, Downtown and Boyle Heights had the most logged sidewalk complaints. Newer developments and largely hillside 'hoods "are less likely to have sidewalks," and often had fewer service requests. More importantly, the Times found that 40 percent of the requests for sidewalk repairs were not fulfilled; the official reason is either that an inspection couldn't be conducted or that the sidewalk was so bad it had to be replaced entirely, and that's something that the city didn't have money for at the time.

Now that the city's decided how much to spend on fixing and patching sidewalks, officials are planning to start by fixing those closest to government buildings (hopefully cutting back on those pesky lawsuits!). A recent report by the City Administrative Officer suggests an approach to fixing the public walkways that would have the city make repairs, but then eventually hand over the responsibility for upkeep near private property to the property owners—they're calling it "fix and release."

Until an official solution is approved, here are the sidewalks to be extra-vigilant about:

· Broken sidewalks a citywide gripe [LAT]
· City of L.A. slow to repair sidewalks despite complaints and injuries [LAT]
· Meet the Block With Los Angeles's Most Dangerous Sidewalks [Curbed LA]
· Los Angeles Finally Being Forced to Fix Its Terrible Sidewalks [Curbed LA]
· Report: LA Should Should Fix Sidewalks Near Private Property, Then Leave Upkeep to Owners [Curbed LA]