ROCKY ROAD FOR STREET REPAIRS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Carmella DeNicolo's street in Arleta bears the signs of nearly 50 years of neglect.

It's cracked, chunks of pavement are missing and now, at 77, she worries she might trip and fall as she crosses the 13600 block of Remington Street with her trusty walker.

City records show that that stretch hasn't been touched since DeNicolo moved to Arleta in 1957 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. And after calling repeatedly the five City Council members who have served her district over the past 20 years, she's had enough.

``I still want the street done. I don't care who does it, I still want it done,'' she insisted last week. ``I've been in touch with every councilman that's been in office. Here is my street, one little street.''

There are thousands of miles of streets like DeNicolo's and the number grows every year.

Officials say Los Angeles fell behind in its street paving during the housing boom of the 1940s and '50s and now has a years-long backlog of streets that need attention - and no hope of catching up.

Of the 6,500 miles of city streets, 135 miles will get repaved this year under the Bureau of Street Service's $46 million budget. The bureau says it would have to pave more than 300 miles a year every year for a decade just to catch up.

``We're paying for the sins of our fathers,'' said Thomas W. Thomas, an assistant director in the Bureau of Street Services. ``Everybody agrees it's nobody's fault - it's not the council or the mayor's fault ... We're behind the curve.''

As for DeNicolo's street, he said: ``I wouldn't say it's common, but people have been living in neighborhoods for a number of years and have not seen any resurfacing activity.''

Valley council members offer no hope that things will change.

``There may be some streets that are in worse condition than hers,'' said David Gershwin, a spokesman for City Council President Alex Padilla, who represented her neighborhood until redistricting a few years ago. ``If we had unlimited resources, everyone with a street that needed to be paved would get paved.''

Councilman Tony Cardenas, DeNicolo's current representative, issued a short statement about the futility of the situation.

``I am so frustrated by the fact that this city has such a low number of streets being paved,'' said Cardenas, who had written a letter to DeNicolo back in April, promising to do what he could. ``Every budget crisis we have to balance between hiring more police officers and firefighters or paving a street.''

But that's not good enough for DeNicolo.

Although she doesn't walk around the neighborhood as much as she used to, and calls her 91-year-old sister, Rose, on the telephone instead of walking across the street to visit, she still wants the street to look nice.

And when she saw that Sharp Avenue, right at the end of her block, is scheduled to be repaved this week, she said she'd had enough.

``I just don't understand it,'' she said. ``I just don't believe after how many years - it's a long time for me - why are the other streets being done?''

The bureau prioritizes streets based on assessments made by its crews, as well as requests from council offices.

The goal is to spend 20 percent of its resources on the worst streets - those that need to be rebuilt - and 80 percent on those that need only grinding or overlays to extend their life.

Of the 135 miles to be done this year, the city's general fund pays for about 17 miles, with the remainder financed through transportation taxes and federal funds.

Separately, the bureau plans to spend an additional $6 million to $7 million this year on slurry seal - the oily coat that can help extend the life of a street.

Mayor James Hahn's current 2004-05 budget tripled the amount of miles that could done with slurry seal from 100 to 300.

But with most streets expected to last 25 years, Remington is well past its prime.

There are patchwork lines showing where the sewers were installed when the homes went off septic tanks decades ago. The gutters are chiseled away to rubble.

But it's not run down for lack of trying to have something nicer.

DeNicolo had been on the phone repeatedly with her councilmen over the decades - she still has a 1986 letter from then-Councilman Ernani Bernardi asking the head of the Bureau of Street Maintenance to look into her request.

Bernardi's been out of office since 1993 after serving 32 years. She's contacted most of the other four officeholders directly since then.

Thomas couldn't recall what happened to the councilman's request, adding that the Bureau of Street Services gets thousands of letters a year and there's been three bureau directors since that time.

The letter has turned brown with age and is covered with the scribbled names and phone numbers of various offices and officials DeNicolo has tried to reach for help.

``Every year that would go by that they would tell me, 'You're on the list for next year,' a year would go by and I would become even more frustrated. I would call and complain again,'' she said.

Now, the city says her street's on the list for fiscal 2006-07.

``It's on and on,'' she said. ``It's been that way all along.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo:

(color) Carmella DeNicolo peers up from her cracked street in Arleta.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Map:

Street hasn't been paved for 50 years

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