Why this matters
Right now, more than one-third of the city's streets are in poor condition or worse, and officials don't have the funding needed to address its growing backlog of street repairs.
The city of San Diego has proposed a plan that would upgrade its 17 miles of dirt or otherwise unpaved roads over an 85-year period.
Though a small part of the more than 6,000 miles that the city maintains, data that inewsource obtained shows some of the unpaved roads and alleys are not just in industrial areas. They’re also in residential neighborhoods, including historically underserved areas that San Diego officials themselves describe as “communities of concern.”
Unpaved roads are found across much of San Diego. About five miles — or nearly one-third of the city’s unpaved roads — are in District 2, which includes Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Mission Bay Park.
Just one council district doesn’t have dirt roads: District 5, which includes northern parts of the city from Scripps Ranch to San Pasqual.
Here are where the city’s unpaved roads are located:
About the data
inewsource obtained and mapped all 17 miles that the city of San Diego has labeled as an unpaved road. They’re part of 62 miles of streets that don’t meet infrastructure standards.
But inewsource found some inconsistencies with the data that the city provided — including a “dirt” street that was fully paved when a reporter visited the location; a road so deteriorated that it became a partial dirt street but was not labeled as such; and road quality scores for some alleys but not for others.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
