Salinas faces crumbling sidewalks across city neighborhoods

Frankly, in over 200 cases, sidewalks in Salinas are a mess and have been reported to the city. The Public Works Director tells me they’re aware of the issue and are working on it, but Gary Peterson plainly admits, there is a problem.

I walked into one south Salinas neighborhood and ran into homeowner Ross Fletcher. He’s a neighbor to Amy who walks regularly in this neighborhood and wrote the initial concern to me. Says Fletcher about the sidewalks, “Yeah, they should fix them! They’re always asking for more money and it’s never enough and the job is never done.”

Amy directed me to one sidewalk that had been pushed up by a tree almost 2 feet.

“They get all these a, b, c, d, e, g whatever funds to do it, but they never have enough money,” says Fletcher.

The one sidewalk pointed out to me is at University and Central in south Salinas. Amy says it’s been like it is for about 10 years. Ross says it’s been like this for over 20 years! I found a stamp on the sidewalk from the Don Chapin Company stamped ‘1994.’ I’m not sure if this is when it was last repaired or newly constructed. Either way, it’s a bad shape.

“We’ve got a sidewalk problem for sure,” say Gary Peterson.

Peterson understands the frustration, “We have a problem. And we have been under-resourced in the past years.”

Peterson says the last time the city went after the sidewalk problem was 14 years ago when they received an infusion of cash from the sale of the Crazy Horse Canyon landfill.

But if you called in to report a sidewalk problem today? “If you called into today and got on a list to have a sidewalk repaired it would take about 12 years to get to you.”

12 years! And the financial backlog? “When you add up 14 years’ worth, we have a backlog of about $12 to $14 million,'” says Peterson.

Okay, but what about the American’s With Disabilities Act, how compliant is the sidewalk that’s been pushed up almost 2 feet?

I asked can a resident with an ADA complaint take the city to court over this? Says Peterson, “Of course they can.”

Peterson and his crew are working on the ADA problem areas and have an ‘ADA transition plan’ he says. The new fiscal budget is in the planning stages with Measure G funds that could include sidewalks and streets.

But Fletcher says no new taxes!

“If they did start raising the taxes to fix all these problems then there’d be a revolt with the people. They’d say, ‘ah naw! naw! naw!'”

So the city has a lot of work to do and they know it.

If you have a problem sidewalk and you want to go to front of the list, the city has a 50-50 plan. You come up with 50 percent of the cost and the city will match that. The average cost to you $1200 to $1300. Call the Public Works Department and they’ll set you up.

If you have a question for me, I’d like to see it. Email me at DearJon@KIONRightNow.com. I’m also on Facebook and Twitter.