Sunday, April 11, 2010

Hazardous Sidewalks - Documented by Avrum Lapin

The following is a list of the most hazardous sidewalks in the Pleasant View Historical District. In all cases the hazard is a lifted sidewalk, usually caused by a tree root. The hazard is such that it might cause a person to trip, a wheelchair to stop. or a powered chair to flip causing an injury and possibly resulting in a lawsuit against the city of Upland.

Note that cracks, functioning asphalt patches, smooth humps and sags , etc are not reported.

List compiled during my medically mandated 60 minute daily walks during period 4-6-10 and 4-10-10.

Please arrange to have repairs made.

For further information please call me at 909-920-9485

East Arrow Hwy
Just east of 758 E Arrow
S side between N Campus and alley to east of N Campus

North Campus Ave.
East Side just north of E. 9th Street
East Sides just north of E. Washington Blvd
West Side in front of Mennonite Church
and in front of these closest addresses
250, 253, 310, 494, 520, 526, 534, 568 N. Campus

North 8th Ave
East Side just south of Arrow
East Side south of F St
between 545 and 555
and in front of 281, 313, 449, 570 N. 8th St

North 9th Ave
East side and west sides Between East 9th St and alley north of East 9th St
In front of 254 N 9th Ave

North 10th Ave
In front of 395 N. 10th Ave

East 9th St
In front of 464, 355, 421, 491, 635, 671, 777, 895 E. 9th

East Washington Blvd
North side east of N 9th
In front of 843 E. Washington

Street Lighting & Sidewalk Survey - Avrum Lapin

I took advantage of my medically required daily walk to survey the lighting and sidewalks in the Pleasant View historical district.

Lighting
I found 6 non functioning street lights and reported same to Edison. We will see how soon they are repaired.

Most of our lighting seems to be mounted on fortuitously located power poles. Since most of our power poles run through the alleys that gives us up to 2 lights per block if the power pole is located near the street. There are some free standing light poles at the corner of Washington Blvd., probably remnants of grade crossings for the Red Cars or ATSF trains. The other free standing poles mid blocks are probably the results of local rabble rousing or the location of the homes of former city counselors or their financial backers.

Most of the functioning street lights are buried in the tree leaves. One cure would be a massive amputation of tree branches (not going to happen). The other cure - new lamp posts etc - will require one of two painful choices
a) agree to creation of an assessment district and pay the additional tax
b) raise buckets of money and elect a city council more in tune with our local desires.

Sidewalks
I found almost 3 dozen hazardous sidewalk conditions and reported them to the public works department (copy sent to you) Note these were big hazards (someone not looking down or an older person (not me) shuffling along might trip). I did not report what I considered functioning asphalt patches or relatively smooth humps and dips. Wasn't as bad as I thought

Code enforcement
I didn't see that many bad spots. Most of the bad spots are located at vacant (and probably foreclosed) properties. I think that the city needs a much more punitive ordinance before we see any results.

Curbs
I didn't inventory those. There are spots where the curb has totally disappeared but there other areas where either the masonry cap or a few stones are gone. There could be fixed either by volunteers or perhaps a semi skilled city worker using court referred community service people as assistants.