You Paid For It: Resident injured on sidewalk badly need of repair

ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis resident said she was seriously hurt on a sidewalk in her neighborhood that’s badly in need of repair. She said the city should have fixed it a long time ago.

Sheilah Barnett said she’s been pleading for help footing the bills for her injuries and asking for help getting the city to repair the sidewalk.

“Coming from the store, and I tripped and fell, and I slid a few feet,” Barnett said. “I couldn’t bend my wrist when I got up. It was just hanging like that.”

She expressed her feelings while going through the issue.

“Oh, like I don’t matter for one thing, and I paid my dues to society as far as working and paying my taxes in all,” Barnett said. “I just feel they don’t care about the lower class people.”

A spokesperson from St. Louis Mayor’s Office released the following statement:

“Whenever city residents encounter a service issue, the city encourages them to file a service request with the Citizens Service Bureau. We were unable to locate a request to repair the sidewalk on the 5200 block of Palm.”

However, Barnett said she did file a complaint.

“Yes, I filed a complaint and have a complaint number and the person’s name that I spoke with,” she said.

Barnett said she’s been trying since the accident in February to get somebody’s attention, and when that failed, she reached out to FOX 2.

She said she is hoping this problem is fixed fast so that the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else.

“They say they have all this money for infrastructure, but you can’t tell by our neighborhood,” Barnett said.

Here’s the full statement from St. Louis Mayor’s Office:

Whenever city residents encounter a service issue, the city encourages them to file a service request with the Citizens Service Bureau. These requests create a record so that the appropriate department can respond, inspect, and make recommendations on next steps. While we were unable to locate a request to repair the sidewalk on the 5200 block of Palm Street, we have submitted the request for the streets department to inspect.

Using American Rescue Plan Funds, the City of St. Louis has invested $6 million to clear a backlog of necessary sidewalk repairs. With the recently passed STL Works budget through the Board of Aldermen on Monday, we have additional resources to address critical infrastructure concerns like sidewalk repair throughout our city.

All residents should report their service requests to the Citizens Service Bureau at 314.622.4800 or online through the city’s website.