NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS-When people think infrastructure, they rarely think to look below them on perhaps the most critical piece of a major city’s growth: its sanitary sewer system. The City of Los Angeles has more than 6,700 miles of public sewers, 6000 miles of which are secondary sewers (sewers 15-inches and smaller that are mostly located in neighborhoods). In addition, there are about 700,000 sewer laterals (typically 4 to 6 inches) that are owned and maintained by private property owners and have an estimated total length of 11,000 miles. The biggest challenges facing Los Angeles’s sewer system is its old age, unknown condition, and property owners’ privately maintained lines that are in disrepair and full of roots.