Valley Village Complaint on Public Right of Way [0001]

Dear Officials,
This is an ADA disabled access complaint regarding the extremely poor, inaccessible conditions of the streets in my Valley Village neighborhood (City of Los Angeles), which make it next to impossible for my handicapped sister to safely walk and move through its vicinity.
My sister is mentally retarded, recently had a congenital heart defect corrected, suffers from problems with her balance, and I file this complaint on her behalf as her brother, guardian and legal conservator. I moved to this neighborhood four years ago so that I could take in my sister and elderly mother (who has since passed away). Due to the lack of sidewalks and curbs, everyone, and most importantly my sister, must walk in the street along with the traffic when going out for a walk in the neighborhood for therapeutic exercise. We are just off of two major thoroughfares through the area, Laurel Canyon and Riverside, two very busy streets. Our neighborhood streets have become shortcuts to avoid traffic on the nearby main streets making it dangerous for all without proper, safe pedestrian signage and paths of travel.
Our street in particular, Morrison Street between Laurel Canyon Blvd and Laurelgrove Avenue, is lined with giant Magnolia trees. Several adjacent streets have them too, but not as many and not on both sides of the street like ours. My house in particular, being on a corner, has 4 Magnolia trees in the City parkway. These trees have very invasive surface roots that have cracked, buckled and basically destroyed the asphalt of our streets adjacent to where they grow. This is where all of the dangerous upheaval has taken place, and because we have no sidewalks, this is where my sister and everyone else is forced to walk through our neighborhood. There is also a lack of sufficient street lighting making the situation even more hazardous at night when the streets are near pitch black. This problem is dangerous for so-called "normal" people to traverse, let alone anyone with any sort of a disability.
My sister loves to go for walks and it is vital that she do so for her health and well-being. She has fallen several times sustaining personal injuries while out on walks in our neighborhood because the streets are so difficult to traverse. About a year ago, an elderly neighbor (at 12322 Otsego Street), fell across from my home, in an area that isn't even as bad as most, and broke her arm and bloodied herself pretty bad. I've informed several city officials about that incident to no avail.
When it rains, the streets flood with water and become even more difficult, if not impossible, to deal with. A neighbor catty-corner has lupus and tells me that the standing water that pools in our streets is not good for her condition. There are many elderly citizens getting in and out of their cars in front of their own homes, and it is difficult for them because of the horrendous condition of our neighborhood streets. When it rains, the street further deteriorates leaving giant potholes that go months before being repaired.
I have contacted the City of Los Angeles countless times to come out and repair our streets. One giant pothole next to our driveway has been there ever since we moved in over four years ago. I have begged and pleaded with the city to repair it, but it still sits there as a danger to all who come near it. Recently, after many pleas to my city councilman's office (Mr. Jack Weiss), the city sent out a giant tractor to "scrape" the potholes near my house and two others. Instead of the city doing the whole street (two short blocks) while they had the truck out, they only did the three houses of the people who had lodged complaints leaving the problem intact on the remainder of the street. Also, the city sent the repair truck on a day that was trash day (May 31, 2006), so all our trashcans were in the road as well as all the cars as they gave us no warning they were coming so that we could move these items out of the way. In the photos below you can see that the pothole near my driveway still exists in an extremely dangerous state because they refused to get out of the truck to move the trashcan before they scraped the asphalt. The first picture is BEFORE they "scraped," the second one is AFTER the so- called "fix," and the third shows the trashcan they left in place making it so they couldn't get in to scrape the hole properly:Even though this "fix" took place on May 31st, 2006, they still have not returned to finish the job leaving the dangerous tripping conditions for my developmentally disabled sister and others to traverse. On top of all this, the magnolia tree leaves fall all year long sometimes disguising these hazardous conditions, thereby making the problem that much worse.
I have written countless emails now trying to get our streets fixed. I have called on the telephone and even spent an hour with Mr. Brian Davis (Chief Coordinator, Bureau of Street Services), who spent the whole time telling me why they couldn't repair the streets and basically said, that we'd probably "never see them repaired in our lifetime." Doesn't the city receive federal funding for streets, roads, and sidewalks? Isn't the city responsible for providing safe and accessible pedestrian rights-of-way? Mr. Davis on or about May 16th, 2006 said the best he could do is put our street on a list for the City Council to peruse, even though he had already done so for the previous year and our street was turned down. Even if they approve our street (which is only 2 blocks long), it doesn't address the problem on adjacent streets, all of which my sister would use to walk and exercise. Those Streets include:• Morrison Street, Addison Street, Huston Street, La Maida Street, Hesby Street, Otsego Street and Hartsook Street between Laurel Canyon Blvd. and Laurelgrove Avenue (these are short 2-block segments) •Bellingham Avenue and Laurelgrove Avenue between Riverside Drive and Magnolia Blvd.
Doesn't the city have a list of street and sidewalk maintenance needs that prioritizes repairs based on complaints or locations of persons with disabilities and the frail elderly that should rise to the top of the repair lists?A Mr. Bloflorshan of the Department of Transportation supposedly did a study on the traffic through our neighborhood and came up with a 2 car per hour ratio (as reported to me by Ms. Joan Pelico of Jack Weiss's office). I set up my videocamera in the front yard on a Monday and recorded nearly one car PER MINUTE. I have a time-lapse version of that video.
I am requesting that our streets be repaved to a safe condition so that my sister can walk and exist in our neighborhood without fear of being badly hurt again. I would like it to encompass all the streets inclusive from Riverside Drive to Magnolia Blvd. to the North and South, and Laurel Canyon Blvd. to Laurelgrove Avenue to the East and West.I am tired of getting the run-around from the City and different excuses from each of the different departments. After a recent submittal of emails to councilman Jack Weiss's office, I mistakenly received an email from a City worker that was not meant for my eyes. This email was meant for Field Rep Joan Pelico in Councilmember Weiss's office in response to an email she sent him. It was sent from the Acting Superintendent for the East Valley Maintenance Area, Mr. Glenn Calzada. It reads:"This person lives in a fantasy world. Does he work for the Studios? He is genuinely concerned about falling off a 5 inch cliff?? Damn, maybe he should call FEMA! Maybe, just maybe, due to the horrible living conditions on his street, he will just have to pull up stakes and MOVE!"
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits retaliations for filing complaints (Shotz v. Plantation), and I feel this email and comments associated with it are directly retaliatory and have subjected me to ridicule for filing these complaints on behalf of my sister. When I showed the email to Field Rep Joan Pelico in Councilmember Weiss's office, she offered no apology (I have her emails), merely expressed her shock at my subsequent email, and offered only criticism that I'm not grateful for all the work they HAVE accomplished, like the repair of the pothole adjacent to my driveway. As is usual with her, she was incorrect that the pothole was repaired as is evidenced in the photos above. Most of these people don't realize what it's like caring for a person with a developmental disability and how difficult it can be for them to exist in areas that would be less of a hazard for someone without a disability. Mr. Calzada's comment makes fun of me requesting the dangerous "5 inch cliff" be repaired for my disabled sister's needs, but until he understands that it would take far fewer inches than that for a handicapped person to injure themselves, he'll never understand the problem. It also opens the city up to trip and fall lawsuits from all people sustaining personal injuries, not just the handicapped. I sent a letter to Mr. William A. Robertson, Director of the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Street Services, in complaint of this ridiculing email on June 2, 2006, and received absolutely no response back. Ms. Joan Pelico has also not responded to emails after I proved to her that the projects she said were completed, were in fact not.
I simply want the city to repair and maintain these roadways and streets especially since it has for years received federal funds for such purposes in order to avoid personal injuries from happening to my sister. Furthermore, the City of Los Angeles should be made to identify and develop a pedestrian right-of-way repair and maintenance project guideline for all city streets to avoid an ADA lawsuit over inaccessibility of its streets, roads, and sidewalks. The city should spend money removing pedestrian barriers as a PRIORITY over other projects that exist throughout the city since pedestrian rights-of- way are a public service. Many other cities are being sued for compliance with the ADA in these areas and I am certainly willing to bring such a suit in this case. As a taxpayer, my family and I have been contributing funds for years while the city has received federal funding for such projects.This formal ABA/504/ADA Complaint is inclusive of the above repair requests and recommendations.I look forward to hearing from everyone in response to these vital disabled access issues, and thank you for your assistance. Sincerely,
Eric Andrist on behalf of Cali Andrist
12155 Morrison Street
Valley Village CA 91607
818-769-XXXX
julyeleventh1962@XXX.net