By law, the city of Los Angeles must balance its budget every year. But the current proposal of Mayor Karen Bass to do so represents a dystopian nightmare for our streets, sidewalks and public transport system. The city must correct this error when evaluating the budget proposed in the coming weeks.
Angeline already lives with streets that deteriorate faster than we can fix them, the sidewalks break faster than we can repair them and the street lamps darkely darken than we can replace them. TO recent audit He presented the absolute fault of the city to achieve zero vision, after promising 10 years ago to reduce traffic deaths. These things are happening under the existing The budget of the fiscal year, which already made draconian cuts in the city. With more cuts, wait an even worse service for daily essential elements.
The budget proposed by the mayor would result in a third reduction in the personnel of the Los Angeles Transportation Department in just two fiscal years, and almost the same in the street services office. If the budget is adopted, the Ilumento de la Calle de la Calle estimated two years After being reported.
Bass's proposal would add money to the Los Angeles Police Department and to the Los Angeles Fire Department, will maintain the mayor's homeless initiative within Safe (although he failed A recent audit), and drastically reduced investments in transport, street services, parks, animal shelters, street lighting and even the zoo.
A budget is a reflection of values. Does the mayor reflect the values of Angels? Do we want to live in a city where we cannot walk the park safely because the sidewalks are too broken and the lamppings are out, and the park hours have been reduced due to staff cuts?
The proposed cuts are also myopes and are aimed at programs that generate more income than they cost or initiatives that save money to the city. For example, in their first full month, the cameras mounted on the front of the metropolitan buses wrote almost 10,000 quotes to drivers illegally parked in bus lanes. This not only accelerated the service for transit corridors and made our streets safer, but also generated millions of dollars for the city.
Two years ago, the state law authorized the city to establish speed cameras, and ordered that the revenues generated by the cameras are destined to fix the streets along the halls. In the typical style of Los Angeles, a year and a half later, we have not yet implemented the cameras (although we are advancing to do so at the end of the year). That means we have not yet received any of the anticipated income or has reaped the safety benefits of the program.
Now, the mayor's budget proposes to save a few million dollars by eliminating 58% of the parking appointments award of the city's transport department, the staff that analyzes the evidence of the cameras and really issues the tickets. That would put us in a situation in which we could not be able to introduce the speed cameras and we may have to suspend the application of the bus lane chamber application. The result, in addition to making our roads less safe, would be a network reduction of millions of dollars per year to the city. This is a penny, Foura de Libra.
This proposed budget also increases the risk payment of the city. For the current fiscal year, the city budgeted $ 87 million to establish demands. But it is on the way to Spend $ 320 million in agreements At the end of this fiscal year. Although claims against the Police Department constitute the greatest participation, the second most expensive department is public works. Almost $ 54 million of these settlements are derived from demands that claim that people were injured due to our dangerous streets and sidewalks. If we try to save money by cutting even more the maintenance of the street and the sidewalk, it will lead to these responsibility statements to increase even more, in addition to the injured human lives.
Keep in mind that Los Angeles is also about to be under the focus on the world stage. Next year we will organize eight World Cup games and the Olympic Games in 2028. We should not organize world class events in streets full of potholes, broken sidewalks and dark lamps. It is a terrible image for Los Angeles, and the budget of the next fiscal year is our last chance to progress before the events begin.
At a recent budget hearing, Councilor Katy Yaroslavsky, who presides over the Budget Committee, asked the Vice -At Mayor Matt Hale if there was a plan in the budget to obtain the necessary resources to prepare for the Olympic Games. He replied: “The investments we are making this year are directed in the direction of developing a plan.” These events are emerging quickly. We do not have time to be “headed in the direction of developing a plan.”
Instead of reducing the key services to make angels habitable and presentable, Bass must approach the unions, clearly show that the city cannot pay the increases that previously agreed and renegotiated to save as many positions as possible. LAPD should establish new rules in place so that we do not spend $ 100 million in a year in the agreement of claims for the misconduct of the officers. And we must avoid reducing any program that generates income for the city, such as the parking application and the application of automated speed, or that save money from the city, such as the fixation of the infrastructure to reduce the payments of future responsibility to the people injured by our streets and broken sidewalks.
Los Angeles is one of the richest cities in the world, but our infrastructure looks more like that of a developing country. It is never a good idea, and always more in the long term, letting its infrastructure deteriorate. It is an especially bad aspect when we are about to organize two important global sporting events. We can and must do better. The City Council now has the opportunity to fix the mayor's budget proposal and reflect our values.
Michael Schneider is the founder of Streets for everyone.
