Los Angeles moved to speed up its sidewalk repair program after the city’s controller reported only a fraction have been repaired in the six years since the city settled a $1.37 billion lawsuit with disability groups to repair sidewalks. On Feb. 2, the LA City Council unanimously approved a motion to instruct the city’s bureaus of Engineering and Street Services to evaluate a series of changes that would speed up repairs, as recommended by Controller Ron Galperin in a November 2021 report. Galperin’s report found decades’ worth of neglect for Los Angeles’ sidewalks and crosswalks. “Even the settlement’s $1.37 billion 30-year obligation may not be enough to address decades of insufficient sidewalk maintenance,” Galperin wrote. To speed up repairs, the departments will evaluate whether the city should prioritize commercial and residential repairs over public and city property and reconsider the city’s “fix-and-release” policy, in which the property owner becomes responsible …