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“I believe the driving force is the delays and lack of maintenance of the city that has caused an increase in such incidents,” said Arash Zabetian, a lawyer for the man hit by the streetlight.

To be in this position at all — with his face on billboards, bus benches and streetlight banners across the city — is a “miracle,” Ball says.

Bass’ spending plan proposed about 1,600 city employee layoffs over the coming year, with deep reductions in agencies that handle trash pickup, streetlight repair and city planning.

He constantly made to-do lists — pothole fixes, tree-trimming, broken streetlights — and peppered city departments with letters and phone calls to get the work rolling.

Dudley — who says her landline and neighborhood streetlights also have been out periodically due to copper wire theft — believes it is only a matter of time before the issue resurfaces for her mom.