When Jayden Mason walks the streets of Ward 1, he’s not thinking about scenery — he’s bracing for injury.
“I don’t like the sidewalks in D.C. because they’re uneven. I always trip,” said Mason, originally from Chesterfield, Virginia, and now a Ward 1 D.C. resident. “It doesn’t matter where I’m at — I’m always tripping, my ankles [roll]. I broke my hip at 17 years old, and every time I walk down some of these sidewalks, I feel it down the side of my body.”
As the Howard University student walks by a campus dormitory, there is one spot that is particularly concerning for his on-foot commute.
“There’s this one part on Georgia Ave by Cook Hall—it’s all brick, and it shifts under your feet,” Mason, 20, told The Informer. “It hurts so bad.”
Mason is not alone.
Washingtonians and visitors of the nation’s capital alike note that damaged sidewalks are more than an inconvenience — it’s a public safety issue that city agencies have struggled to resolve.
From cracked pavement to tree-root upheaval, the city’s 1,500 miles of sidewalks are riddled with hazards that disproportionately affect seniors, disabled residents, and lower-income communities.
“I know for sure that it’s the D.C. sidewalks that are making me experience pain because when I go back to see my family in Virginia and walk on the sidewalks there, my hip feels perfectly fine,” Mason said.
Delays That Last Years
Scott Price has been tracking sidewalk complaints for years as a member of the Capitol Hill Village Sidewalk Safety Task Force. The group advocates for safer infrastructure for seniors aging in place — many of whom face even greater risk when sidewalks go unrepaired.
“D.C. does extraordinarily well on fixing potholes,” Price told The Informer, “but much less well on fixing sidewalk problems. Some of these issues extend over multiple years and never get resolved.”
The official average repair time listed by the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT) is 270 days, but Price said that figure doesn’t reflect what residents actually experience.
“In some cases, it’s over a year. In a third of all sidewalk cases, the city misses that 270-day deadline,” he said. “If it takes over a year, people forget where the issue even was.”
Funding Without Follow-Through
In 2023, the D.C. Council approved an additional $5 million for sidewalk repairs, but the funding’s impact remains unclear.
“In the first two months of Fiscal Year 2025, when they added new money, they closed out more sidewalk requests than they had in the prior two years combined,” Price said. “So we were hopeful.”
However, Prince explained that sidewalk repair crews later told the task force they never saw that money.
“We raised the issue during the oversight hearings,” Price continued. “But there’s no back-and-forth with DDOT. We testify, and then weeks later, they testify. There’s no dialogue.”
He also said council oversight is limited.
“DDOT has never disclosed how much they actually spend on sidewalk repair,” Price added.
Community Takes the Lead
In the absence of clear city action, community members are stepping up with initiatives like Sidewalk Palooza, a resident-led effort launched by Greater Greater Washington and now organized by Erin Palmer, who formerly served as the 4B Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC). Palmer mentioned that Sidewalk Palooza, launched in 2021, was the brainchild of Nick Sementilli with support from Greater Greater Washington. The two partnered up the first year to bring the event to the community, and since then, Palmer has taken on the effort to keep it going.
“Sidewalk Palooza was kind of a light roast of the mayor’s Pothole Palooza and AlleyPalooza,” Palmer told The Informer. “It was our way of saying: ‘Hello? We have sidewalks, too.”
The events gather neighbors to walk through their communities and submit requests for sidewalk hazards to 311, which, through the Office of United Communications, allows D.C. residents and visitors to request city services and report non-emergency police issues.
While casual and community-driven—sometimes even including parties—Sidewalk Palooza participants are strategic in their goal: spotlight sidewalk neglect.
“We just walk, and when there’s an issue, you submit a 311 request,” Palmer explained. “It’s just designed to put a little bit of pressure on the city.”
The Limits of 311s
While 311 allows residents to reach out in order for the city to address their needs, Price and former advisory neighborhood commissioner Erin Palmer raised concerns about over-relying on the 311 system to fix what they see as structural issues in city infrastructure.
“One of my pet peeves about 311 is that you’re relying on residents: A) to know how to file a request, B) to understand the impact, and C) to actually take the time to do it,” Palmer told The Informer. “There are disparities in who’s submitting 311 requests and how often. DDOT needs a more proactive approach to identifying sidewalk issues.”
Price noted that the delays in response can intimidate residents from even wanting to work toward change.
“If 311 response took one or two months, people would believe in it,” he said. “But when it takes a year or longer, it discourages participation.”
Inequities in Repair
While Sidewalk Palooza is a fun way for the community to come together to address needs, Palmer said the programming has revealed stark differences in sidewalk quality across wards.
“I’m not analyzing the data, but it sure seems like the sidewalks are in worse shape in the neighborhoods that are always disinvested in,” she said. “There’s one stretch on Morris Road in Anacostia that has missing sidewalks, tripping hazards, and even a bus stop area where the sidewalk is just six inches wide. I saw someone in a wheelchair riding in the street because there was no other option.”
Having served as a commissioner for six years, Palmer, a Ward 4 resident, said sidewalks must become as important as other city services.
“It’s an almost universal experience that we need pedestrian safety. It’s something that impacts all of us, regardless of how we otherwise get around,” Palmer, a mother and ethics lawyer, emphasized. “But also the idea that sidewalks are just so deprioritized compared to how we treat roads. That’s not entirely fair and is harmful to people who are in wheelchairs, walking pedestrians, people with strollers, and kids.”
A Push for Accountability
As someone who has traversed the city as the leader of Sidewalk Palooza, Palmer believes DDOT and District leadership need to spend more time experiencing D.C. the way many people do: on foot.
“I want DDOT to understand what the experience of a pedestrian is,” she said. “If our leadership were really engaged in getting around as a pedestrian or using public transit, they would experience these problems firsthand and maybe understand them better.”
She added that concentrated neighborhood action — like multiple 311 requests submitted during a Sidewalk Palooza — can make a difference by showing city officials that sidewalk safety is an issue that is very important to residents.
“A collective neighborhood effort is reflected in the frequency of 311 requests they receive. It is just a good way of showing that the neighbors actually care about this.”
As Mason navigates throughout the District, at least for the next year as a senior at Howard University, he hopes that the city will address the sidewalk challenges, not only for his safety, but anyone negotiating their way around the District.
“Now that my injury was almost four years ago, I am able to run and dunk just as [well] as before I was hurt, with no pain,” he told The Informer, “but when it comes to these sidewalks, somehow it always reaggravates it.”
