TREE ROOTS WREAKING HAVOC; SIDEWALK POLICY IRKS RESIDENTS.

Byline: Michael Coit Staff Writer

The ornamental mulberry tree's name belies its tenacious nature: No sidewalk within reach of its roots is safe.

Ask residents along Rosales Street in Sylmar, where thick tree roots have pushed up and broken slabs of concrete sidewalk, creating a kind of pedestrian roller coaster.

Turning to the city for help with the troublesome street trees, Myra Makee and her neighbors ran into the same obstacle L.A. residents have faced since the mid-1970s.

The Bureau of Street Services maintains the nearly 700,000 trees lining Los Angeles streets, but the city hasn't had a policy on sidewalks in two decades. This leaves homeowners to deal on their own with damage from street trees such as more than 150,000 Indian laurel and carob, once favored for their heartiness but now cursed for their destructiveness.

``They tell me there's no money, there's no money, there's no money,'' said Makee, whose home faces a swath of sidewalk lifted by roots. ``After living here for 20 years and not saying anything, I decided I'm fed up and I think it's time to get some action.''

If residents won't pay for permits and expensive concrete repairs that can last several decades, they must settle for unsightly asphalt patches the city street crews will slap on, at no cost, every couple of years.

But the work is rated such low priority that even the cheaper, quicker asphalt alternative hasn't eased a mounting backlog of sidewalk repair requests from property owners.

Los Angeles hasn't paid for concrete work to repair sidewalks damaged by street trees since a three-year program supported by a federal job training fund ended in 1976, said Greg Scott, the city's street services director.

``So we do asphalt patching. It may not be attractive, but it is functional,'' he said. ``We will keep coming out as long as you need it.''

The city has 10,000 miles of sidewalks and an estimated 4,600 need repairing. While Scott's crews complete some 30,000 jobs a year, the backlog of repair requests now tops 80,000.

``It won't go away as long as we don't have a complete sidewalk program,'' he said. ``It will just keep growing. I don't have funding for that.''

Petitioning for action

Angered by the policy, Makee circulated a petition calling on the city to do the job right.

So far, copies of the petition signed by nearly 20 homeowners and letters sent to Councilman Hal Bernson and Mayor Richard Riordan have yielded a patchwork of asphalt repairs, but no commitment to change the policy.

A letter from Bernson states his concern for the lack of city funding for sidewalk repairs and assures asphalt patches will be done if needed. But the councilman also noted that residents rejected an assessment district last year to pay for sidewalk repairs.

A letter from Riordan's office states that the mayor sought funding in the current budget for repairs and curb ramps for handicapped access. The council approved a five-year curb ramp program, but no money is set aside for other repairs.

``Certainly we will revisit this issue,'' said Jennifer Roth, the deputy mayor who has worked on the sidewalk problem. ``Sidewalk repair is something that's important to neighborhoods throughout the city. It speaks to quality of life and access.''

Makee, a special education teaching assistant, doubts city officials downtown truly care about her middle- and working-class neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley's northeast corner.

She intends to keep applying pressure and now plans to contact state representatives. After all, a 1911 state law gives cities the authority to make property owners liable for sidewalk repairs and enables cities to recover repair costs.

``I don't think that's right, it's not fair,'' said neighbor John Aguilar, looking over one of the asphalt patch jobs. ``I had two little kids fall off their bicycles because of that. One cut his lip and the other bruised himself up.''

A few homeowners have paid for concrete repairs that require cutting back roots.

Secession the answer?

Frustration over the city's efforts has been enough to push Makee and some of her neighbors to support the idea of the Valley seceding from Los Angeles.

Living next to the city of San Fernando, they see the services a smaller city provides. They figure sidewalk repairs would be taken care of correctly and sooner if the Valley were a separate city.

``People feel very powerless, that their voices are not heard,'' Makee said.

Smaller cities bordering Los Angeles have made sidewalks a higher priority.

Calabasas has no backlog for sidewalk repairs. San Fernando has been cutting into its two-year-backlog. Glendale is trying, but has been limited in reducing its decades-long backlog due to paying settlements for trip-and-fall claims.

Each of the cities pays for concrete work if parkway trees are the cause of damage.

High cost of cracks

The city spends between $2 million and $4 million annually on settling claims for trip-and-fall accidents.

Legal costs were one reason the City Council placed a bond measure for sidewalk repairs on the November 1998 ballot. The measure would have provided nearly $770 million for such work over 20 years. It would have cost property owners an average of $21 annually - but voters rejected the measure.

Many on Rosales Street voted for the bond.

Standing on a pair of uplifted concrete slabs forming a low peak, Makee's neighbor Kim Sisino said skateboarders love it as a jump.

``The kids come out here, but it they fall and hurt themselves, then we're liable. It's all like this, and some places are worse,'' she said. ``In due time, it's going to get worse and worse.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) Rosales Street residents, from left, Ron Makee, John Aguilar, Kim Sisino, Myra Makee and Britnee Sisino stand on uplifted sidewalk.

(2) Los Angeles estimates it has 4,600 miles of damaged sidewalks, and some 80,000 repair requests.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer