Beauty is pain—or so the old adage goes. But some Palo Alto residents have recently begun to wonder whether a little aesthetic pleasure is worth all the hurt.
Officials in the Bay Area city have received numerous complaints about a beautification project that included new sidewalks embedded with polished glass on California Avenue. While the new design may be pleasing to the eye, business owners and residents have said it’s an injury waiting to happen, especially since pieces of the glass are coming undone.
City officials aren’t tiptoeing around the issue either. In fact, they recently asked a contractor to repair the sidewalks at no expense to the city.
"There are some areas where the glass pieces are very dense and sticking up further than how it's supposed to be," city spokeswoman Claudia Keith said. "When it's poured correctly, it's supposed to be flush."
The glass-embedded sidewalks were part of a $7 million project which also entailed upgraded crosswalks, new bicycle parking, and a fountain.
Read more about the city’s request for repairs here.