Hey mister, wanna buy a sidewalk?

Some Los Angeles city officials are proposing the largest transfer of public land to private homeowners in the history of the city. But there's a catch, as outlined by the story in the LA Times today. See, the city wants to give homeowners the sidewalks (with an easement, of course) that border their property.
That way, they are no longer responsible for paying to fix them. I suspect the liability for trip-and-fall claims then reverts over the homeowner's insurance. Double bonus for the city! Sneaky, sneaky, huh?

Faced with more than 4,000 miles of broken sidewalks and scarce money to make repairs, Los Angeles officials are weighing a proposal to put responsibility for making the fixes squarely on homeowners.

Under the proposal, homeowners would be forced to replace the damaged pavement -- or pay the city a fee -- when they sell their property, before the close of escrow.

The City Council's Public Works Committee got its first look Wednesday at the "point of sale" plan, which could cost the average homeowner as much as $15 for each square foot of sidewalk, and dramatically shift the burden for such repairs from city government to the private sector.

If the city give me the sidewalk in front of my house, the first thing I'm going to is put up tollbooths. If LAUSD can charge the public to use public facilities to fund their upkeep, why can't I? I intend to charge $5 for walking through the lovely strip between my fence and the greenery between it and the curb (what do you call that strip, anyhow?), which I'm not sure if I own, but is my responsibility to keep up.