Death of a city’s sidewalks: the crack-up

One of the first things a visitor to Los Angeles notices is the odd way the sidewalks are lifting up and running downhill. There’s a simple explanation.
The sidewalks are trying to escape.
You can’t blame them. Not only have they been conscripted to serve as campgrounds for tent cities, they are the floors of pop-up restaurants and flea markets, and — in a crowning indignity — they have now been turned into raceways and parking racks for flocks of motorized scooters.
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