HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-22-2013 ac schmidt c2Heather
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Please forward for tonight.
Thank you
Maeve Kennedy Grimes
City Clerk
City of San Luis Obispo
990 Palm Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone: (805) 781 -7102
Email: mgrimes @slocity ore
Grimes, Maeve
Tuesday, January 22, 2013 4:12 PM
Goodwin, Heather
FW: Sidewalk Program Agenda Item
- - - -- Original Message---- -
From: Carter, Andrew
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 2:33 PM
To: Grimes, Maeve
Cc: Grigsby, Daryl; Lichtig, Katie
Subject: FW: Sidewalk Program Agenda Item
Public File
Andrew Carter
Council Member
City of San Luis Obispo
From: rschmidt@rain.org [rschmidt @rain.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 11:54 AM
To: Marx, Jan; Carter, Andrew; dcaroen @slocity ore; Ashbaugh, John; Smith, Kathy
Subject: Sidewalk Program Agenda Item
Dear Council Members,
Re: the sidewalk inspection program.
JAN 2 2 2013
AGENDA
CORRESPONDENCE
Date k9 Item# "�
This is totally infuriating and an insult to every resident of this city— especially to those like myself who have fallen on ill -
maintained city -owned sidewalks (Murray median) and have to live lifelong with the consequences.
It is nothing more than an official rationale for doing nothing to repair neighborhood sidewalks.
Staff is asking you to endorse their slovenly do- nothing approach to neighborhood sidewalks. You MUST NOT ENDORSE
THIS. Instead, you must direct staff to get on with repairing what needs to be repaired, and not to invent ridiculous
"programs" like this that claim to be about reducing risk but which are actually rationales for unethical treatment of
residents.
The report to you is so full of nonsense and lies, it's hard to know how to even deal with it. For example:
• "A report of a trip and fall is given the highest priority for repair."
This is an outright lie. Nothing substantive has been done to the Murray median where I fell, despite more contacts to
the city and to YOU DIRECTLY than I can count. Staff has even lied to you and claimed the opposite. In fact, we've been
told we'll just have to wait for repairs to the sidewalk till it's time to rebuild Murray's automobile portion, which is years
off.
(Linking sidewalk repair to street repaving is idiotic -- there's no
nexus.)
• "The Sidewalk Inspection Program is one phase of sidewalk maintenance involving the proactive inspection of
sidewalks on a regular schedule."
What a lot of nonsense. Inspecting once every 8 years is "proactive ?" Give me a break. You should fire people who write
this sort of trash.
• But fear not, while neighborhoods get looked at once every 8 years, downtown will get annual inspections. Bravo! This
is just more of the city's "free lunch" approach to how it allocates its resources: handouts to the rich and powerful and
sticking the rest of us with the bill, and the pain and suffering.
• "An average vertical displacement between sidewalk abutments that is used to evaluate a "trivial defect" is 3/4 inch."
A % inch displacement is not trivial in the least. It's exactly the sort of thing people trip on — huge displacements are
obvious, and can be avoided, but these aren't noticed, and are plenty to catch the toe or heel of a shoe and send
someone flying. That's what happened to me. To neglect to note such defects "for appropriate action" is dereliction of
the city's responsibility.
• "This inspection program will assist in protecting the City in the event claims are made for inadequate maintenance of
the sidewalks and thus will reduce risk and liability." Now we're getting down to what it's really all about— persiflage to
create a paper trail to fend off insurance claims from people injured by the city's malfeasance. The city should be
ashamed.
THE CITY DOESN'T NEED THIS FANCY PAPERTRAIL DO- NOTHING NEIGHBORHOOD SIDEWALK INSPECTION PROGRAM.
WHAT IT NEEDS IS FOR THE COUNCIL TO TELL STAFF TO GETTO WORK FIXING NEIGHBORHOOD SIDEWALK DEFECTS
NOW!, AND TO PROVIDE THEM THE FUNDS TO DO IT.
FIX THE SIDEWALKS NOW!
Richard Schmidt