Failure to Fix the Up Escalator Has Got Merchants Down

The Empire State Building was constructed in 14 months and the Eiffel Tower in 26. Astronauts flew to the moon and back in nine days, and Gulf War combat lasted four days. Even the O.J. Simpson trial was finished in nearly nine months.

But those achievements were not stuck in the up-and-down intricacies of escalators--and the Los Angeles city bureaucracy.

Sixteen months since they broke down, a pair of city owned and operated escalators await repairs to resume shuttling downtown shoppers and noshers to and from Main Street at the mall beneath the Los Angeles Civic Center. And no one knows when they will be fixed.

“It’s very embarrassing that the city has let those escalators exist for so long not working,” said Howard Gantman, a deputy to Councilman Michael Feuer. “It’s very emblematic of the problems facing the city now.”

Ana Sloane, owner of a dry-cleaning shop at the escalators’ base, agrees, especially because she has lost customers unwilling to climb the 32 steps on adjacent stairways. “More than a year is a pretty long time, and the thing still looks like a construction danger zone. You would think something would have been done by now,” she said.

City officials responsible for the 24-year-old escalators blame shortages of money, parts and workers for the repair delays. They contend that the two street-side escalators in the Los Angeles Mall and the 12 others in its underground garages should be replaced to the tune of $1.4 million. But given budget woes and a huge backlog of repairs needed at other city facilities, they hope for about $140,000 in temporary fixes on the escalators later this year. An estimated $100,000 has been spent without success.

Ed Hunter, a Civic Center building and maintenance superintendent for the city’s General Services Department, concedes that privately owned escalators in department stores and office buildings are repaired much more quickly. Still, he urges patience to people who grumble that the escalators seem abandoned in mid-repair, like patients left on the operating table.

“I tell them to bear with us,” said Hunter. “We weren’t budgeted to repair those escalators. We are aware they are an inconvenience, but we have not forgotten them.”

One big difficulty, he stressed, has been finding proper replacement parts, such as step chains and floor plates, for a model that was discontinued in 1975. More recent and tougher safety rules complicate the work. Plus, the city repairman who knew best how to cobble together homemade parts retired last year.

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Michael Hogan has heard many such pleas for forbearance. “All I can do is chuckle about it now,” sighed Hogan, owner of Federal Photo Studio, one of 24 shops and eateries in the underground center. “Do I have a choice? You can write letters, send memos, make phone calls and get the classic response: ‘They’re working on it.’ ”

As for the city claims about parts, he counters with sightings of old escalators in department stores that get repaired speedily.

The two escalators just outside the City Hall East complex on Main Street are barricaded by plywood. Signs proclaim in red and black letters: “Out of Service for Major Overhaul.” The metal sidings are stripped open, their rubber handrails dangling. A large pull chain rests on the ground, unprotected from possible rain and vandals.

Across the mall, half the escalators in the four-level garages are operating. Visitors and city employees hike up and down the stalled mechanical stairways with an uneasy sense of vertigo. As city officials emphasize, regular stairways remain open and two elevators into the mall are available for the handicapped or anyone else.

Noelia Rodriguez, spokeswoman for Mayor Richard Riordan, agrees with critics that the broken escalators “are not only inconvenient, but they are a bad image for the city.”

She said the Riordan administration hopes that some of a recent $500,000 appropriation for overall mall maintenance will help fix the moving stairs. But she cautioned that any spending must be weighed against possibly more pressing needs such as police services or libraries.

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Further delays will not please Barney, the 4-year-old, 50-pound basset hound who is customer relations chief at Crown Cards and Gifts in the mall. Barney used to ride the escalators every day with friend Lisa Hoshizaki, whose family owns the shop. Now Barney has to climb the steps and “is not happy,” Hoshizaki said. Barney’s response to questions was to roll over on his back and offer a spotted stomach for solace scratching.

And if an escalator can’t be repaired, can the city be trusted with such a more ambitious project? Dennis Kum, president of the mall’s merchants association, is not confident.

“It’s kind of ridiculous,” said the manager of the Wok Inn restaurant, “for the city to want to build these new things without being able to maintain the present facilities.”

‘I tell them to bear with us. We weren’t budgeted to repair those escalators.’