Community Corner

PEDS to City: 'Allocate funding for repairing broken sidewalks'

Founder of Midtown-based advocacy group tells city council that, "Atlanta is spending too much money on claims and not enough money on maintenance."

Are you tired of poorly maintained sidewalks around Midtown and Atlanta?

The folks at PEDS are and they let the Atlanta City Council know about it Monday afternoon during the regularly scheduled council meeting.

Based in Midtown at 1389 Peachtree Street, PEDS is a results-oriented, advocacy organization dedicated to making metro Atlanta safe and accessible for all pedestrians.

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PEDS Founder and President Sally Flocks addressed the city council during the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting.

“I’m here today to ask you to allocate funding for repairing broken sidewalks,’’ Flocks said. “Atlanta is spending too much money on claims and not enough money on maintenance.”

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Last month, the city paid a blind man injured on an Atlanta sidewalk $3 million as a result of a lawsuit. Another $1.14 million was shelled out to settle a claim by a woman who said her shoe got caught in a fractured sidewalk.

Which Midtown sidewalks are most in need of repair? Tell us and/or share photos of them.

As it stands now, city law makes abutting property owners responsible for maintaining and repairing broken or damaged sidewalks. But as evidence by the crumbling sidewalks throughout the city, these sidewalks, which are the property of the city, aren’t being properly maintained.

“It is time to change the city’s funding and to actually pay for sidewalk maintenance,’’ Flocks told the council. “It does not work to leave it up to the property owners. Property owners are finding that they cannot get contractors who are willing to do piecemeal work.

“It makes much more sense to treat our sidewalks as a network and to repair them street by street.”

11Alive News reported that an “audit of the city's infrastructure estimates 25 percent of sidewalks and curbs need to be replaced or repaired.”

Such repairs would cost an estimated $152 million. The city has committed $500,000 to repairing some of Atlanta’s most severely damaged sidewalks, but clearly many crumbling sidewalks aren’t being addressed.

“The Urban Land Institute has done some research for us,” Flocks explained Monday. “It costs 50 percent extra to repair on a piecemeal basis than doing it one mile at a time. It’s time for us to actually put a line item in the city budget for sidewalk maintenance.”

During her presentation, a 32-foot long petition featuring 180 footprints was displayed.

“We have the footprints of a lot of people, including a lot of children, who are concerned that if we continue with the kinds of policies we’ve had today and neglect the sidewalks, what will the sidewalks be for their future,’’ said Flocks.

She later concluded, “I remember when I was on the Task Force for a Walkable Atlanta back in 2004. We told the mayor we need to get rid of our dysfunctional system. OK, it’s eight years later. Let’s do it. Let’s put a line item in the city’s budget for sidewalk maintenance.”


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