A San Diego City Councilman is behind a new plan to fix what he said has fallen through the cracks: the city’s sidewalks.
While the city has done its best to fix thousands of cracked, misaligned, and otherwise hazardous sidewalks over the last few years, it's paid out millions of dollars to plaintiffs who have been hurt by them.
That’s why District 5 Councilman Mark Kersey is dedicating as much as $100 million over the next decade to complete a backlog of sidewalk repairs.
Councilman Kersey, who chairs the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the money will be divvied up evenly over the next decade.
The last comprehensive study on sidewalks was done in 2015. It found more than 108,000 sections that needed repair. Since then, about 27,000 have been fixed.
“It's a sign of years -- decades of neglect,” Mission Valley resident Anna Delial said. She lives along Friars Road where she said there are sidewalks in such bad shape that they give her 10-year-old dog fits.
The city of San Diego paid out more than $5 million in 2017, nearly $3 million in 2018, and nearly half a million last year in sidewalk settlements.
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There is also a plan to fix the backlog of what the city refers to as 50-50 splits, which are areas where homeowners want to split the cost of sidewalk repairs along their property with the city.
