La Jolla sidewalk survey shows hazardous pathways

Reacting to growing liability concerns, La Jolla maintenance assessment district has furnished the City with 1,270 pages of sidewalk photographs and corresponding addresses following a survey of sidewalk conditions within the boundaries of the district.

The MAD boundary generally includes those parcels between the Pacific Ocean, La Jolla Boulevard, Pearl Street, Girard Avenue, and Torrey Pines Road. The service area includes approximately 1,348 parcels with 1,158 property owners.

“The current state of some of the sidewalks photographed in this inventory is unsettling,” said Ed Witt, board chair of Enhance La Jolla, which runs the MAD. “The Village of La Jolla is one of the busiest areas for pedestrian traffic in all of San Diego. This effort to provide the City with information identifying sidewalks in need of repair or replacement is demonstrative of Enhance La Jolla’s commitment to community improvement.”
Enhance La Jolla’s sidewalk inventory information was shared with District 1 Councilmember Joe LaCava and other city personnel on Nov. 15.

Witt said the genesis of the sidewalk survey dates back several months to when the City first informed them “there was a trip in a tree well on Pearl Street that we, the MAD and Enhance La Jolla, were responsible for.”

“We didn’t feel we were responsible, though our insurance company paid,” noted Witt. “Then in September, I received a message from an insurance adjuster saying she was working on another trip and fall (claim) on Silverado Street just west of Fay Avenue. That really infuriated me.”

That subsequently led Witt to an extensive walk-through of the entire Village he conducted along with Enhance La Jolla manager Mary Montgomery and District 1 staffer Steve Hadley. “We walked for hours and came up with pages upon pages of photos documenting trip-and-fall hazards,” he said.

“The City provided us with a list of funded and unfunded areas of trip and fall hazards in our area that the City knew about. Up until today, none of the hazards on that list have ever been touched.”

Witt added he has spoken with many of the other 58 MADs in the City, noting they are all concerned about trip-and-fall liability issues. “Paying $200,000 a year for liability insurance, that kind of thing isn’t sustainable,” he concluded.

Dedicated to the maintenance and physical improvement of the Village of La Jolla, Enhance La Jolla is a nonprofit managed by commercial and residential property owners within the boundaries of the MAD and other community stakeholders. With funds generated from property owner assessments in a MAD, Enhance La Jolla provides increased landscape and maintenance services for the Village, over and above those provided by the City.

The primary goal of the organization is to help ensure that the Village remains the jewel of San Diego, creating inviting and appealing public spaces that bring people together and improve quality of life. For more information, visit enhancelajolla.org.

Enhance La Jolla, which operates the La Jolla maintenance assessment district, hires contractors to provide ongoing landscape and maintenance services to supplement city services and keep the Village looking its best. The services provided are based on the scope of services as approved by the property owners when they approved the formation of the MAD. These services include: