Every day, Makenna Olsen walks 10 minutes from her home to get to class on campus at USC. On her way along 29th Street, the sidewalks are cracked, the ground is uneven, and trees uplift the concrete beneath her.
“It’s really difficult to walk around just my neighborhood because it’s so uneven and the tree roots are growing under,” said Olsen, a popular music major at USC. “It is hard on the knees a little bit, and it’s not very accessible for the elderly community or just people with disabilities.”
Sidewalk safety is on the minds of some students as a nearly $1.4 billion sidewalk settlement, made through the case Willits v. City of Los Angeles, enters mediation. The settlement was reached in 2016 and mandated that the city repair cracked sidewalks and build curb ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Around 1,750 repairs have been completed, according to an LAist analysis of data from the City of L.A. Bureau of Engineering. However, as of Oct. 21, the backlog leaves nearly 5,000 repair requests unfulfilled. Some of those pending requests are in the area around USC.
Brendan Spears, a biochemistry major who lives at the USC Village, said uneven sidewalks make it harder to ride his scooter and walk around campus.
“[USC] is always having little incidents with people on their scooters because there’s a lot of potholes and divots inside of the ground, and it often makes people fall off their scooters or even trip,” Spears said. “It’s very unfortunate that it happens.”
The mediation comes 10 years into the 30 year settlement. In the midst of Disability Awareness Month, Spears said he keeps his fellow students’ accessibility needs in mind. One of his friends is a wheelchair user, who he says struggles to get to campus because of uneven sidewalks.
“He has to watch out for the potholes, make sure that his tire doesn’t get caught or dragged or anything, and it does make it difficult for him,” Spears said. “And he does show up to class sometimes late, but he’s a very good student, and he wants to practically be a part of that environment.”
The city developed the Access and Construction Database Viewer, where residents can check on the progress of repair requests sent to the city. They can also see that hundreds of requests remain pending.
Estabean Valdes, a Business administration student at USC, walks to campus in order to attend their classes and said that accessible sidewalks are important for everyone.
“If a student is in a wheelchair and they need to get to class and they can’t get to class because of something like that, then it’s not really their fault.” Valdes said. “When you’re easily able to maneuver through campus, it also creates opportunities for not only people with mobile disabilities, but for everyday people.”
Edited by Jadon Frank