Tragic Video: Old Woman in Wheelchair Vs. Hump in Los Angeles Sidewalk
We alert you, this gorgeous Thursday, to the ever-deteriorating state of L.A.'s streets -- so nicely, if tragically, demonstrated by Mahdokht Nakhost, a Northridge resident in a wheelchair.
LA Daily News Mrs. Nakhost holds on for dear life.
The LA Daily News posted a video this morning of Nakhost's neighbor struggling to push her over a monster hump in the sidewalk, right outside her house. It's quite the roller-coaster ride. (Video embedded below.)
Even more tragically...
... Nakhost's husband tells the Daily News that, unlike the couple's neighbor, he is no longer strong enough to push his wife over the hump. Hell, he can barely walk over it, much less scale the mountain with his wife in tow.
The Daily News reports that the Nakhosts of Northridge "have been twice turned down by the city of Los Angeles to put the fix on their sidewalk Styx" -- instead, the city suggested that they pay for the upkeep themselves.
Disabled residents are currently fighting the City of Los Angeles in court over similar complaints. They filed an approximately $85 million class-action lawsuit a few years ago, in response to civil-rights-infringing conditions for the wheelchair-bound throughout L.A. (So no, you are officially never allowed to complain about the pothole that ate your BMW, ever again.)
Here's a familiar tearjerker from one of the plaintiffs:
Some years ago now, Nicole Fahmie was trying to cross the street from her apartment to the Howard Hughes Center (near the Marina), where she wanted to see a movie.However, being as there was no curb dip to allow her motorized wheelchair up onto the sidewalk, she had to use side streets, where cars were whizzing past at 30 MPH. It was a life-threatening scene -- one she'd become accustomed to, but was no less frightened by.
But when Fahmie called the city about fixing her curbs, she was told, "We'll get to them when we can get to them."
And to think, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was just lauded by the New York Times for his excellent work in the transportation sector.
Dear Mayor: Maybe if you spent less taxpayer cash on your PR office and more on bringing our ridiculous streets/sidewalks out of the Third World, your constituents would hate you a little less? And dear NYT: We'd like to see you navigate a Northridge tree root masquerading as a sidewalk. Then we'll talk.
[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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