It takes politics to change politicians. This is a many year process: to bring into public office people who care, willing to change laws, or city ordinance

It takes politics to change politicians. This is a many year process: to bring into public office people who care, willing to change laws, or city ordinances, and department values and priorities (street / public works) and budget money for the new priorities, and to flex the electoral muscle by the organizing (an increasingly important and larger number) of voters to pay attention. Like it or not that is the game you are in. If you are not playing to change the game, you are doomed to play by the same rules you complain about. The handicapped / wheelchair access to sidewalks, now visible nation wide in the US, started with zero curb cuts everywhere in the 1960s, and wheelchair non-accessbility to many essential services, such as grocery stores, post offices, other public buildings, including schools, court houses, social services, and municipal governmental offices. Hospitals had figured this out, mostly, but not entirely, by that time.