There are 5,000 miles of sidewalks in the city of San Diego, and all too many can be unsafe for strollers, joggers, cyclists and skateboarders.
Who should pay for upkeep and repairs – not to mention medical bills, if someone's hurt?
Other California cities target property owners.
Right now, under San Diego City Council policy 200-12, homeowners and landlords share the cost of fixing "trip hazards" with the city.
But it's not a formal law, and a council committee is looking at potential new options.
In San Jose and Sacramento, city governments disclaim any legal responsibility.
NBC 7 took the issue to street level Monday in the Stockton district, where – at the intersection of 30th and K Streets -- we quickly found stretches of sidewalk that seem anything but user-friendly.
"I come through here every morning sometimes 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, and that can be a hazard, a safety hazard,” said longtime, nearby homeowner Ricardo Donaldson, staring down at a broken stretch of asphalt on the southwest corner.
“So I don't know, between the owner and the city,” Donaldson added hopefully, “I would like to see it fixed.”
Just across the street was a sidewalk upheaved in two places by tree roots from a large, leafy side-yard tree behind the wooden fence of a house to the east -- just waiting to snag the wheels of a baby buggy, maybe a skateboard, or the feet of some schoolkids in a big hurry leaving the King-Chavez Academies.
For law-making purposes, we heard this suggestion from James Wright, who lives near the intersection of 31st and J Streets: “I think it should be 75-25 (percent) … 75 from the city and 25 from the homeowner. My property is damaged. I'm willing to pay for it and get it fixed.”
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Wright, a resident of the neighborhood since 1948, lamented the prospect of a future doctor, lawyer or president being paralyzed or brain-damaged by a serious fall on a substandard sidewalk.
”The thing about people now, it's all about suing somebody,” he told NBC 7. “But if you fix it, you can't sue anybody."
Any other ideas that City Hall might put on the table?
"There's one that's been advocated by a professor at UCLA for a long time,” offered Voice of San Diego staff writer Liam Dillon, who’s extensively covered city infrastructure issues, “that as a part of selling your house, there's a point of sale where fixing your sidewalk is a condition of selling your house. So if you do that, you will insure that sidewalks ultimately get fixed. But obviously, that's something that the realtors aren't going to like."
There may, however, be other acceptable options without provoking realtors or lawyers.
Long Beach subsidizes fixing the "worst" sidewalks and curbs in all council districts.
Would voters approve San Diego doing the same, as part of next year's planned “mega-bond” ballot measure?
Council discussion begins Thursday afternoon at City Hall, when the Infrastructure Committee takes up the issue -- and the results of a $1 million, first-ever assessment of city sidewalk conditions.
Ed. note: After this piece aired, a city spokesperson wanted us to clarify that homeowner for sidewalks is actually a state policy. Get information here.
