The City of Columbus says Livingston Avenue has historically been one of the most unsafe roads in the city.

Residents have been saying it for years.

Now ask yourself this.

Why did people have to survive dangerous conditions for so long before major action finally became urgent?

According to the city, improvements have been underway since 2020.

But residents say speeding never stopped.

One woman says a speeding driver literally crashed through her yard and into her house.

Now she has boulders sitting in front of her home for protection.

Think about that.

A resident had to turn her property into a barrier system because the road remained unsafe.

And despite all the danger, the city says larger scale construction may not fully ramp up until 2028.

That means residents in this corridor could wait nearly 8 years from the time concerns were heavily raised before major changes fully arrive.

This is bigger than traffic.

Livingston cuts through working class and heavily Black areas of Columbus.

Unsafe roads affect:

Neighborhood safety.

Bus stop safety.

Children walking.

Property stability.

Mental stress.

Quality of life.

Economic confidence.

Daily survival.

The city itself admits people do not feel safe walking dogs or even sitting at bus stops along Livingston.

That is not normal.

That is a quality of life failure.

Now here’s the scorecard.

The city says redesigned corridors in other areas reduced crashes by 50% and speeding over 50 MPH dropped by 91%.

So if the solutions already exist, why did residents here have to wait this long?

That is the pressure point.

Because Black communities and working class communities should not have to normalize dangerous living conditions while waiting years for urgency.

This is what The Black Wall means by outcome based accountability.

Not speeches.

Not ribbon cuttings.

Results.

If a corridor is dangerous in 2020 and still dangerous years later while residents are putting boulders in front of their homes, then the public has every right to ask:

Who was protected first?

Who received faster investment?

Who had to wait?

And why?