Why Dallas sidewalks are in such bad shape | Opinion
Sasha Roppolo, 13, of Richardson used a tablet to take photos that showed missing sidewalks near Sam Tasby Middle School in Dallas on Thursday. Students took photos near the school and along Phoenix Street of issues affecting pedestrian safety.Dallas sidewalks are in bad shape. Thousands of bumpy sidewalks, tilted slabs and wonky joints across the city pose safety hazards and threaten Dallas’ aspirations of walkable neighborhoods.
On an admittedly unscientific basis, a mini walking survey was done last summer by a handful of residents in Council District 12, in North Dallas. It counted 40,000 places where there were uneven sidewalk joints exceeding one half inch high, enough to cause a trip. Los Angeles had similar problems, and in 2015, it settled a class-action lawsuit filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act for $1.4 billion. Dallas allocated money to maintain some sidewalks, but nothing to fix old, defective sidewalks. Will Dallas be forced into adequate budgeting?
These trip hazards and sunken sections are the result of 50 years of improper construction practices, with the cost to fix them now falling on homeowners. Residents who care about sidewalks and try to report safety problems can do so using the 311 system. However, the city’s 311 website doesn’t include in the drop-down choices the option to report a sidewalk trip hazard. You’d have to know about the ADA accessibility concerns option. That option refers to constraints, barriers and ramps but nothing about trip hazards that violate ADA criteria.
Without any indication that a 311 service request will be addressed, residents have little incentive to report a problem. The city does not go looking for these hazards, they wait for a resident report. The homeowner isn’t likely to report hazards, because the city charges them half of the repair cost. So no one is accountable and little is accomplished.
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