The Facts

More potholes and fewer safety upgrades are the result of a street-safety ballot measure that Los Angeles passed in March 2024. Measure HLA requires bus, bike, and pedestrian safety upgrades when the city repaves qualifying streets. Two years later, Los Angeles has delivered only about 300 feet of HLA-triggered improvements across a city with over 7,500 miles of streets.

The Context

Before the election, city officials warned HLA could impose roughly a $3.1 billion cost. The math is simple: if each qualifying repaving job gets more expensive and the maintenance budget stays flat, fewer streets get done. That is a predictable outcome for any agency working under a fixed budget.

The GrowSF Take

San Francisco should take this as a budgeting lesson, not an argument against safer streets. Voters cannot be promised repaving and safety upgrades without a realistic funding plan. Big promises plus no money usually means worse delivery.