CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Eugene Navarro resides on Schanen Boulevard, a neighborhood near Weber and Holly Road. He points at the beat-up sidewalk along Schanen Boulevard, which is inaccessible for him to ride his wheelchair on.
"Just look at this. This is really bad. I mean, I don’t know how it could get this bad and the city is not doing anything about it," Navarro said.
"There’s no way for me to get through this. I have to exit here and get onto the street," Navarro said.
Navarro said this presents another challenge for him since the street lacks handicap-accessible curb cuts.
"If they understood that I can’t get on the sidewalk and get off. There are no handicap access ramps," Navarro said.
He said his current solution isn’t safe or practical.
"I’ll either have to go down the street and exit through a driveway, but I’m still going to be crossing on a no-crossing area. Do I get hit out there whose fault is that? That’s going to be my fault. I’m crossing the street where I’m not supposed to. So that’s what I’m forced to do," Navarro said.
And he is concerned about kids in the area with an elementary and middle school on the street.
"You know kids they don’t pay attention. I’ve seen them fall, those cracks on this side, can you imagine someone's body falls? That’s really bad the concrete is really sharp," Navarro said.
KRIS 6 News reporter Tony Jaramillo spoke with Public Works Director Ernie De La Garza to see who is responsible for fixing the sidewalks and curbs.
"Per city ordinance the maintenance and upkeep of sidewalks and even curbs is the responsibility of the adjacent land owner," De La Garza said.
De La Garza said that it even includes sidewalks that are adjacent to schools.
"If the school is the landowner we’ll get with the school or sometimes it’s not developed yet but it’s property that’s owned by a land-owner we’ll still get with the landowner, whoever the landowner is," De La Garza said.
However, according to De La Garza, Schanen Boulevard is on the rapid pavement program, which will stretch along Schanen Boulevard from Weber to Everhart which will add ramps to the crossings along the streets.
"This one is set up to be completed by the end of the fiscal year, about September time frame. If we get to it sooner we will. Any time we do a pavement improvement we are required by ADA compliance rules to update the crossings which are the ramps," De La Garza said.
De La Garza said if you see sidewalks in bad shape, the best move is to call 311 for code enforcement.
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