Boston has a sidewalk problem, and residents flood the city's 311 line with complaints. The sidewalks are even an issue on one of the city's most well-known streets, despite a multi-million-dollar plan to redesign it.

State Street runs from Boston Harbor to the Old State House. The street is just a cobblestone's throw from Quincy Market and usually packed with tourists. Its history goes back about 400 years when we can only assume the sidewalks were just a little bit better than today. 

The street became a banking hotbed in the 1800s and now you can bank on having a tough time navigating it on foot. It's only one-third of a mile long but getting down the obstacle course of a sidewalk feels like an expedition. There's crumbled concrete, uneven bricks, missing stones and one curb that has been replaced by plywood. 

Jane Stricker and Pat Palmer live nearby and walk down State Street all the time. "It's a dangerous street I think," said Palmer. 

She contacted WBZ-TV to ask what ever became of the idea to redesign the historic street and fix its aging sidewalks. What ever happened to that plan? "I'm a regular WBZ viewer. I see Question Everything and that was my question," Palmer said. 

Stricker, Palmer's friend, has been right there with her asking questions to city leaders and trying to get things fixed. "Every time someone is running for office, we are there," Stricker said. "People take copious notes. We get a lovely return phone call the next week and then nothing happens." 

Plan to redesign State Street

A few years ago, Boston's City Streets Department unveiled a multi-million-dollar plan to redesign the entire street with wider sidewalks, bigger bike lanes and ADA compliant sidewalk ramps. Somehow, many of State Street's ramps are not compliant. 

The city's website for the project actually shows an older man having a hard time with a walker. But the plan seems stalled. Originally, construction was estimated to begin in the Spring of 2025. Nothing has happened. 

Postal Carrier Chris Thompson says no repairs have been done in the meantime and he sees tourists falling all the time. "I've been working in this neighborhood for 11 years and it has gotten worse," Thompson said. 

5,700 sidewalk complaints

This isn't just a problem on State Street. It's a problem in neighborhoods all across the city. Last year, there were more than 5,700 sidewalk complaints to the city's 311 phone line which residents use to request repairs. City Councilor Erin Murphy says about two-thirds of those had not been fixed by the end of that year. 

Murphy was elected councilor-at-large in 2021 and said she has been trying to get her colleagues and Mayor Michelle Wu to make sidewalk repairs a bigger priority. 

"I think we can do better," said Murphy, who says she has called for City Council meetings to ask the city's top brass what's being done to expedite repairs. She says those meetings never get scheduled or get canceled. 

Bike lanes a bigger priority?

The installation of bike lanes has been a big priority for City Hall over the past few years. WBZ asked Murphy if she thinks they are a bigger priority than getting sidewalks fixed. 

"One hundred percent, has been over the last few years," Murphy said. "Like right here (on State Street) we see crosswalks where they don't have ADA ramps accessible and bricks that are up and people falling. We have to make sure we are prioritizing safety over the bike lanes for sure."  

WBZ reached out for an interview with the City Streets Department at City Hall. The office sent a statement that read in part: 

"The City of Boston is focused on improving our infrastructure and ensuring safe, accessible streets and sidewalks. While we have made significant progress by repairing or reconstructing over 20 miles of sidewalks in the past two construction seasons, we still face a historic backlog of sidewalk repair requests." 

The city also said it's working to have "neighborhood specific contracts" to repair sidewalks more quickly. 

As for the State Street redesign that was originally set to be done in 2026? It is still in the design phase as the city continues to work with the community to reach a consensus on what that project should look like.