Collaborator: It is not surprising that Angelenos is painting pedestrian crossings.

On July 22, a story of feeling good was news in Los Angeles: a painting of civic volunteers had spent a month of Saturdays Paint pedestrian crossings near Stoner Park in THE SAWTELLE NEIGHBORHOOD. A worried resident (and my friend), Jonathan Hale, modeled the effort at other DIY crosses After witnessing a series of nearby calls between pedestrians and cars. However, within three days of reports on civic effort, the Los Angeles Transportation Department sent A crew to remove pedestrian crossings.

Why did Litot acted so fast? It was not because pedestrian crossings were careless. Hale had He studied the codeAnd even the representative of the Local City Council member said it “It looks beautiful. “In California, each intersection of the stop firm also legally includes a crosswalk, regardless of painting, so the volunteers only made it visible.

A declared concern are the demands filed by virtue of the Law of Americans with disabilities: it is officially required by all pedestrian crossing facilities for Include Scale ramp Facilities to minimize risk. This legal interpretation is not even universal neither Strictly followed in practice. But as the former officer Diego de la Garza commented, Aparot believes in robust processes, always studying the potential of “lighting, signals and speed limits“Together with pedestrian crossings. He suggests that he simply paint a pedestrian crossing without a holistic approach creates a”Security illusion. “In other words, Aporeot eliminated pedestrian crossings because the city cannot simply improve;

No one to pay attention to Los Angeles will be surprised by this. Academics talk about measuring a local government for their “State capacity“: How good it manages finance, maintains order and delivery public goods. According to these measures, the angels have a marked legacy by ambitious objectives that do not have executed due to a defective and swollen process. Consider three of the ambitious objectives of the former mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti: Build: Build: Build: Build: Build 28 public transport projects For the 2028 Olympic Games, eliminated All traffic deaths for 2025 and End Street Homelessness for 2028.

Today alone Four of the 28 original traffic projects They are completed. Traffic deaths have increased 186 in 2015 to 337 in 2023. And of the $ 1.2 billion raised in 2016 to build 10,000 housing units for homeless, the city has Completed 5,597 units. Since 2018, the number of unprotected people in the city has increased by 17.8% to 26,972.

These failures clearly demonstrate that our local government will simply do not do things quickly and effectively.

Consider Vermont transit corridorA rapid bus transit proposal that establishes the old subway leadership could have been implemented for 2028 But now it is unlikely to be. The delay occurred when the Metro Board arrested the project as conceived to study the construction of a railway line (without any source of financing). This second admission was inspired by vague concerns about racial equity.

Or consider the sidewalks. A simple repair of a one -month sidewalk is routinely delayed by a design and contracting process that takes Almost two yearsleading to Waiting times of up to 10 years. One can begin to understand why a couple of years ago in Brentwood, former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger He turned to fill the bumps himself.

The homeless housing projects financed by the HHH proposition took an average of three to six years To build, with one taking 18 years Due to the layers of approval and a demand for the Environmental Quality Law of California.

This is precisely the reason why our painters of vigilant intertwood opted for DIY work: they wanted to see a crossing of painted pedestrians, not bogged down by the bureaucracy. Fortunately, only seven days after Lporet unbuttoned Hale's work, The city replied the pedestrian crossings. Facing public pressure, the city decided that the absolute avoidance of the responsibility of the ADA does not need to be the priority. And it is likely that it should never have been: since 2020, he has paid almost $ 300 million In claims for responsibility for broken infrastructure And alone $ 1.4 million in Ada demands.

But without deeper reforms, we are unlikely that we see the city painting sooner: only a few days after pedestrian crossings were removed, emails show that Apartot refuses to consider the improvements in the street. Because? Recently City budget cutsTHE DEPARTMENT “You no longer have adequate staff“Consider doing” studies “to implement”Traffic control devices“(That is, a crosswalk). Instead of simplifying the process, he is throwing her hands and telling residents:” No more pedestrian crossings! “

In contrast, consider how the governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro famous A broken highway was corrected in 12 days. The then governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, obtained the average office of motor vehicles, visit times up to nine minutes. In 1994, after the Northridge earthquake, the local authorities had the Highway of Santa Monica back to the service in less than three months. And recently, when the public pressure was applied, even Apartot found the time to eliminate and re -paint pedestrian crossings in 10 days.

Angels should be working to rationalize each process that can, increasing the capacity of state and facilitating good. But seeing that this happens will require a fundamental political reorientation. Moderates must stop pretending that status quo works, and progressives must stop promising ambitious lunar shots without making existing services work first.

But most importantly, it requires more citizens like my friends in Stoner Park, who invest enough in their city to find a reform, ideally with their hands and votes.

Thomas Irwin is an economic development professional for a non -profit organization in Los Angeles and a housing organizer with the Faith and Housing Coalition and East side house for everyone. He writes “Pontification“ In substation.