Fixed streets, shared futures needed in L.A.
Infrastructure matters
As visitors to Larchmont Village know, well-maintained public spaces matter to the health and well-being of our community. But too many Los Angeles neighborhoods lack them. Instead, decades of neglect and disjointed planning have left much of the city struggling with the basics: safe sidewalks, functional streetlights, shade and mobility.
Larchmont Village was named a favorite spot in a survey conducted last fall by Investing in Place, a non-profit organization focused on improving public spaces in Los Angeles. Larchmont was named by those surveyed as “a spot they visit weekly.” What drew them in? “It has everything we’re looking to have in L.A.” They go there “…to eat, [for] the farmer’s market, [and because it is] a nice area to be outside. The street is clean.” And why is it special to them? “Because there are so many options.”
Half of L.A.’s sidewalks are broken, with over 50,000 unresolved repair requests and a 10-year wait for fixes or curb ramps. 22,000 empty tree wells sit baking in the sun, missing opportunities for shade, mobility and beauty.
Why? Because more than 20 city agencies, departments and bureaus oversee L.A.’s public rights-of-way, each with its own budget, mission and priorities, often working in silos, sometimes at cross-purposes to each other. There is no unified multiyear work plan, comprehensive project list or shared vision. The result? Infrastructure projects are piecemeal, slow and opaque to the public. Sidewalk repairs, tree plantings and street improvements happen inconsistently, if at all, depending on which agency is responsible or if they can coordinate.
EDZEL PEREZ enjoys the public space at Robert L. Burns Park on Van Ness Avenue.
Likely, you know this all too well. Maybe you’ve tried to get a crosswalk installed, a streetlight fixed or an access ramp added in your neighborhood. Maybe you’ve made the calls, submitted the requests and are still waiting years for basic improvements.
Public spaces like sidewalks, streets, parks and plazas are more than just infrastructure. They are the connective tissue of our communities, shaping social interaction, public health and economic vitality. Their condition reflects governance. Well-maintained public spaces signal a city that values equity, efficiency and transparency. Crumbling sidewalks, broken streetlights and neglected parks tell a different story: one of fragmented decision-making, poor financial management and a disregard for public well-being.
A simple way to start to fix this is a Capital Infrastructure Plan (CIP). Incredibly, L.A. is the only major city without one. San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Boston, New York, Chicago, Houston and Seattle have CIPs. These plans establish a citywide vision and most importantly, a multi-year budget for public space investments, ensuring funding is transparent, coordinated and accessible. L.A.’s lack of a plan isn’t just an oversight, it’s a fundamental barrier to a functional city.
In October Mayor Karen Bass took a first step toward systemic reform by issuing Executive Directive #9 (ED #9): Streamlining Capital Project Delivery and Equitably Investing in the Public Right-of-Way. This directive lays the groundwork for L.A.’s first-ever comprehensive CIP. However, unless Bass and City Council hear from Angelenos about how important and long overdue this directive is, it risks the status quo of the city spending at least a billion in tax dollars for sidewalks and streets every year without a plan. ED #9 risks becoming another well-intentioned policy that never gets operationalized, or worse, a bureaucratic exercise perpetuating the same fragmented systems responsible for today’s failures.
ED #9 highlights L.A.’s long-standing governance and infrastructure challenges, which will only intensify as the city prepares to host the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics. The devastating recent fires and recovery efforts have exposed the same weaknesses: a lack of coordinated planning, investment and execution. Disasters don’t create problems; they expose and deepen them. Without a CIP, Los Angeles will remain reactive instead of resilient. A CIP isn’t just a bureaucratic tool; it’s a long-term strategy to ensure the city can prepare, recover and build a stronger, more equitable future.
It’s time for Los Angeles to stop managing its public spaces as an afterthought and start treating them as the essential city-building tools they are.
By Jessica Meaney, executive director of Investing in Place. For almost two decades Meaney has led efforts in Los Angeles to promote inclusive decision making and equitable resource allocation in public works and transportation funding.
Category: News
