Hms California

"Captain Smith, I need to speak to you about the water in my room."
"Sir the ship is sinking, you need to get to a life boat"
"That is beside the point! I need you to send a steward to my room to mop up the water!"

Los Angeles may be the land of the freeway, but it is notorious for its bad sidewalks — buckled, cracked and sometimes impassable. By the city's own estimate, 42% of its 10,750 miles of pedestrian paths are in disrepair.

Now a series of civil-rights lawsuits against Los Angeles and other California cities is for the first time focusing attention — and money — on a problem that decades of complaining, heated public hearings and letter-writing campaigns could not.

Civil Right? Having a sidewalk is now a right? Who knew.

The plaintiffs contend that the conditions violate the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, a tool that has been used across the country to force better access at restaurants, department stores, movie theaters and the like.

Ah that pesky little devil.

In Los Angeles, the city has settled two cases for about $85 million. That money will be used over the next two decades to build thousands of sidewalk access ramps at curbs.

But there are four other cases pending that could leave the city on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Fixing all of Los Angeles' sidewalks would be a daunting task: Officials estimate the cost of improving them all would top $1.5 billion. But advocates for the disabled hope they can make a measurable dent in the problem.

1.5 billion?!? Well, I'm sure that L.A. has the money right?

There is little dispute that the sidewalks are an embarrassment. But some officials question what the city can do when it already faces a $72-million budget shortfall.

That is 74 large for this year. In other words they are short 74 million to just run the bloated, corrupt, and heavy handed government they currently have, now they have to come up with another 10 million a year for the next 10 years? Not gonna happen. But you know what, screw everyone else, I need smooth ground so I can go get my grand slam breakfast. That chunk of land can't fall into the ocean fast enough.