In all this talk of mayoral candidates, can anyone fix LA’s perennial problems?

I’ll start this story on a quiet tree-lined street in Mar Vista, where a couple I met on Thursday — the day after the LA mayoral debate — had a problem.

That’s right it is not unusualas things progress in Los Angeles. On both sides of the road, the road goes up and down, uprooted and broken by shallow roots because for many decades, the trees were not properly cared for.

John Coanda, 61, who grew up in Los Angeles, was not bothered by the torn streets as a child.

“Actually,” he said when he first emailed me about his problem, “my friends and I sometimes used the pavement as jump spots for our bikes.”

But his wife, Barbara, was diagnosed with ALS in 2024, and uses a wheelchair. When John pushes her, they can’t use the sidewalk if they want to go to the store or meet friends, or enjoy a nice walk through the neighborhood without getting into the car.

So John pushes Barbara’s wheelchair down the street, which creates an obvious safety issue. And despite John’s best efforts to get City Hall to fix the sidewalks, he expects no help anytime soon.

I will come back to this story in a bit, but first, about that argument.

I recruited half a dozen LA residents to watch and send me their thoughts on how the candidates are handling important issues. And then I felt guilty for doing so, because the chosen ones didn’t do anything at all.

They hit their talking points, sure, and Mayor Karen Bass, Council Member Nithya Raman and TV host Spencer Pratt each had their moments. But at the end of the debate, and two straight nights of gubernatorial debates, I came away thinking that there were no clear winners, but there was a loser.

Voters.

This is a format error more than the candidates themselves. The stakes are stacked against important, meaningful discussions, especially when moderators ask – as they have done several times – for one-word answers.

“The president’s questions are meaningless … and make it easier for the candidates to exchange ideas,” said political analyst Darry Sragow. “The format is guaranteed not to release anything of value.”

It would be better to have single-issue debates, and for candidates to be pressed for information by journalists who report those stories and who can backtrack on false promises and reveal a lack of depth.

My debate viewers did some of that for themselves. CSUN librarian Yi Ding had praise and criticism for each candidate, but she was looking for concrete plans and didn’t find many.

Ding was also disappointed that two other mayoral candidates – Ray Huang and Adam Miller – were not invited to the debate, and I agree with him. Both have been polling low, but with so many undecided voters, and such high disapproval ratings for Bass, they should have been in the middle.

Mike Washington, a retired pharmacist and West Adams resident, said Bass has done better than previous mayors on homelessness and didn’t think Raman or Pratt’s exit should have kicked him out of City Hall.

“The public would benefit from more questions related to the challenges young people face,” said Juan Solorio Jr., president of the organization. San Fernando Valley Young Democrats the club. His colleague David Ramirez agreed, saying he hopes “there will be more conversations about the cost of living for young adults,” but that he and Solorio both support Bass.

West LA software developer Mike Eveloff asked the million dollar question of one of his observations during the debate:

“Why is LA spending record amounts of homelessness, fire, police, and infrastructure while the results are crumbling? The streets and sidewalks are crumbling. Even the city signs in front of City Hall are crumbling. With the World Cup and Olympics approaching, voters must know: Are these leaders capable of running a city of fourteen billion?”

Venice resident Dennis Hathaway, author of “Journal of the Octogenarian,” he said he thinks “these kinds of debates are not constructive at all.” And, as someone I wrote two years ago about the roads in his neighborhood explodedshared this lament during Thursday’s debate:

“It’s not about broken roads, potholed roads, and other crumbling infrastructure. To me, that’s a more important topic than voting in non-citizen city elections.”

(Bass said during the debate that there was a new infrastructure plan in place, and that is a step in the right direction. But there was no discussion, and if you read the details, the 2028 Olympics projects will be prioritized, and it will take years to figure out how to get money for thousands of other much-needed repairs.)

The Coandas live close to the Hathaways, and their lives have been improved first by Barbara’s diagnosis and then by John’s layoff in February from his job as a data analyst. Barbara still teaches French on Zoom, and John takes care of her needs. They started a Go learn me campaign to help pay off their debts.

Since Barbara is in a wheelchair, John contacted the city’s Safe Sidewalks LA program last fall, and I think it’s fair to say that name is somewhere between a misnomer and a bad joke.

“The Program” responded by email on Halloween, appropriately enough, informing him that under the City Council-approved “Sidewalk Repair Program Prioritization and Scoring System,” his request for assistance was only worth 15 points out of a possible 45.

“Currently,” he was informed, “the estimated waiting time for the completion of a 15-point access request is over 10 years.”

Happy Halloween.

Over the years, the responsibility of road maintenance exchanged between the city and the homeowners. There is a rebate program available to people who repair their own driveways, but it is set at a rate that does not always cover the cost. And the broken road keeps many lawyers busy with trip-and-fall cases that cost the city millions each year.

Barbara Durieux Coanda, who has ALS, and her husband, John Coanda, make their way down the ramp in front of their Mar Vista home.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Coanda told me that he doesn’t have the money right now to pay for the repairs, and even if he did, there are several other road accident spots on both sides of his road, so he’ll still have to push his wife’s wheelchair down the road even if he repairs the cracks in front of his house.

Barbara graciously said she thought the city had other priorities, but in November her husband contacted Councilwoman Traci Park’s office and said she was told she would have to wait 10 years for repairs.

“Sadly,” he wrote, “I don’t think my wife will live that long.”

A Parks employee responded, “The timing of the change feels realistic given the budget crisis the city finds itself in.” But, the employee added, perhaps the council member’s office “could help move the needle on this request.”

Coanda said he was too busy with his wife’s affairs to follow up. But Pete Brown, Park communications director, told me Friday afternoon that the office is looking at ways to pay for repairs that don’t take 10 years, including using discretionary funds.

I don’t know how that might play out, but I do know that LA doesn’t need another debate like the last one.

We need a mayor and council members who refuse to accept that it will take 10 years to build a safe wheelchair access road.

In the national capital of broken sidewalks, we need concrete plans.

steve.lopez@latimes.com