Tired of waiting for the city, Angelenos paint their own crosswalks. Some become permanent.

The streets around Stoner Park in Sawtelle are often filled with families on their way to the park, nearby day care and surrounding schools. Jonathan Hale, a local resident, believed the area was lacking a key safety feature: designated crosswalks.

Hale recently took it upon himself to make a fix that he believed the city had overlooked when he purchased about $200 worth of paint and recruited neighbors to paint crosswalks around the park over several weekends.

It’s not the first time Angelenos have taken matters into their own hands to try to improve street safety by painting crosswalks at precarious intersections. Many get frustrated by how long it takes for the city to respond to requests through 311 and just do the job themselves. Sometimes the city removes the paint stripes; sometimes it moves to make them permanent.

In Sawtelle, Los Angeles’ Department of Transportation removed the unsanctioned DIY project about two months after the first stripe was painted, prompting an outcry among community members.

The Transportation Department said crosswalks needed to comply with accessibility requirements before permanent installation. Then last week, the mayor’s office announced that the crosswalks would be painted after all — before curb ramps and sidewalk improvements were made.

“Stoner Park is a key community anchor — a place where neighbors gather, kids play, and local events bring people together. When we talk about where L.A. comes together, it’s places like Stoner Park,” Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the area and urged the city to add crosswalks around the park, said in a statement. “That’s why it’s so important to prioritize pedestrian safety and make sure everyone can get around safely.”

City officials did not respond to questions about whether its actions ignored state and federal guidelines. And although the Transportation Department said that no requests for crosswalks had previously been made at the location near Stoner Park, the mayor’s office said that the Bureau of Engineering had received “multiple sidewalk accessibility requests surrounding Stoner Park between 2017-2018.”

“The City makes thousands of critical infrastructure improvements and upgrades each year,” spokesperson Clara Karger said.

City agencies often have pointed to funding constraints as a reason for delays, but the mayor’s office did not respond to questions about the total cost for this project, which eventually will include the installation of curb ramps and sidewalk improvements.

“We will continue doing all we can to keep Angelenos safe — that includes pedestrians and park-goers,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement about the announcement.

The decision raises questions about how infrastructure updates are prioritized by the city, which has struggled to keep up with a backlog of requests for street improvements amid ongoing traffic safety breakdowns.

“The Bureau of Street Services (StreetsLA) primarily uses our annual resurfacing program to determine the locations of access ramps that we design and install; we do not work off a request-based system,” said Dan Halden, the bureau’s acting director of external relations.

He said the budget for this fiscal year includes the installation of approximately 300 access ramps across the city.

Hale, who moved to Los Angeles about a year ago from the San Francisco Bay Area, was pleasantly surprised to learn that the crosswalks would be restored after his initial efforts had been erased. If the city was struggling to improve residents’ safety, he questioned the pushback to citizens’ own efforts.

“We don’t need years of studies to tell us that there should be crosswalks and slow streets by a park and schools and day cares — those are just obvious things,” said Hale, 25. “If you stand on any one of these corners for long, you’ll see kids running around and you’ll see close calls … I figured that the crosswalk was something that benefited people and didn’t hurt anybody.”

The city’s 10-year-old Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic-related deaths has not come to fruition in Los Angeles. A recent audit found significant failures in the program. And the budget strains on the city’s Transportation Department and the Bureau of Street Services could further delay goals around street safety.

“We have, per capita, some of the most dangerous streets in the country to walk around,” said Michael Schneider of Streets for All. “I think this [DIY effort] is a reaction to that and a reaction to a local government not taking action.”

Schneider said that the slowdown can in part be attributed to the city’s understanding of accessibility guidance, which appears to differ in interpretation even among city agencies.

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Last week in Koreatown, a 9-year-old boy was fatally hit by a car while crossing the street on an electric scooter at 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue. Concerns over the safety of that intersection previously prompted discussion for the installation of a roundabout. LADOT solicited feedback from the community in 2021, but nothing has been constructed.

A crosswalk memorial painted by Crosswalk Collective LA is at 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue in Koreatown.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

The Crosswalk Collective LA — a safety advocacy group whose tagline is “We paint crosswalks. The city of Los Angeles doesn’t keep us safe so we keep us safe” — gathered in Koreatown Saturday morning to paint crosswalks at the intersection. The group purchased the stencils that were used at Stoner Park and served as inspiration for Hale, but were not involved in his efforts in Sawtelle.

That evening, residents gathered for a candlelight vigil to honor the young boy who died. One of the newly painted crosswalk stripes at the intersection had not been filled in. Instead, there was an inscription in the center: En Memoria De Nadir Gavarrete.