Potholes (Chicago, Redmon: 2009, credit, unemployed)

[surlycue]

Some residents filling potholes themselves - 4/08/09 - Chicago News - abc7chicago.com

By Theresa Gutierrez
April 8, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Some Chicago residents are fed up with the city's pothole problem so they are taking matters into their own hands. Residents and members of a community group are fixing the holes themselves.
The South Austin Coalition is helping residents make rides on their pock-marked streets a little smoother by providing the material needed to fill potholes.
Potholes are everywhere. Many Chicagoans say they have to drive in the city looking down to see potholes, and that is not considered the safe way to drive. How do you avoid them? Some residents have decided to do their part. They believe the Chicago Department of Transportation is not repairing potholes fast enough, and they have become dangerous.
"You can't walk out there. You walking out there in the street at night, you can fall down and break your arm," said Florida Vaires, concerned Austin resident.



"The city hasn't done anything about the potholes on this block. Members of the community are taking matters into their own hands instead of doing it themselves," said Elce Redmond, South Austin Coalition Community Council.
Angry residents of the South Austin Coalition Community Council, who live in the 4800-block West Van Buren, have decided to take the pothole situation into their own hands and have started repairing potholes themselves. The coalition is supplying the blacktop to fill them and the residents are doing the work.
"I'm proud of these people. These people are trying to get the streets together, because it seems like the city is not doing anything around these type of neighborhoods," said Antoine Noifleet, Austin resident.
"In the last two months on the 4800-block of West Van Buren, we've received just one call about potholes," said Brian Steele, Chicago Department of Transportation.
"We are inundated with potholes, very dangerous potholes," said Redmond.
CDOT does not recommend residents fill the potholes for a number of reasons.
"Safety. We don't want people out on the street among active traffic. Secondly, we don't know what type of material they're using," Steele said.
The big question is who is responsible legally if someone gets hurt or destroys their car on a pothole repaired by a resident.
"That's a very good question, one I don't have an answer to. That's the reason why infrastructure repairs are under the purview and the responsibility of the city," said Steele.
"Are we willing to take responsibility? That's a good question, and one I have to look at in terms of our legal department," Redmond said.
Potholes can be found across the city. ABC7 drove to other blocks in the Austin Community and found potholes then went to the north Side and found too many to count.
Avoiding them can take work and they can destroy your car.
"The city has not received state funding for arterial street resurfacing since 2006. Typically we would do about 30, 40 miles of street resurfacing. We haven't been able to do that the last three years. That's starting to take its toll," said Steele.
Austin residents say they will continue to fill the potholes on their own.
The Chicago Department of Transportation says they are aggressively attacking potholes. They have filled over 300,000 since December 1 and fill close to 5,000 a day. The problem is there are too many.
Officials say the federal stimulus package will help the city resurface over 40 miles of streets, and the state will also provide money for over 100 miles of resurfacing, so help is on the way.



TL;DR: A coalition in the Austin neighborhood is supplying blacktop to residents who are manning the equipment and taking care of the labor themselves.


There are a couple of points here that I find interesting, specifically that if the pot hole issue is so severe (I am not familiar with Austin but I have seen some gruesome ones in my own neighborhood and the ones I frequent) that city workers are simply unable to cover enough ground, could the city be persuaded to provide a stipend to the residents doing to work for materials/labor or at least provide a credit in services (perhaps an upped police presence, extra street lights/security monitoring, and/or public school services in this area)? I figure that those working must be unemployed or underemployed to go to this trouble so perhaps the city should reward their initiative.


Obviously there are bigger fish to fry in Austin but it is nice to see community involvement working towards something. Maybe this will jump start further coalitions.

[Costa Rica Chica]

That's what people do in Costa Rica. We used to say they were "turning the holes inside out." Sad that Chicago is to the point where it's like a third-world country, at least as far as street pavement goes.

[Carantini]

I love when your driving on a major city street and theres like two cones halfway in the ground so people dont drive into those pits! If a car drove in one itd be stuck in them!

[PokerPlayer1]

It burns my butt that the city is trying to condemn these guys.
IMO, they should be given medals for telling the ido-nothing city to pound sand and taking matters into their own hands.

[NYrules]

I commend these people in Austin for embarrasing the city like this. It's true, Chicago is like entering a third world country now with a few exceptions and generally those exceptions are where the wealth is found, the rest of the city continues to slide into further decay. I don't care what anyone says, by FAR the worst roads in the country for not only surface conditions, but also poorly timed signals that are now being purposely poorly timed and having cameras installed on them to entice motorists to run the red lights so the city can rip you off further and the capacity of the roads being only about 40 years behind times (2 lane roads everywhere) makes Chicago a horrible place to drive.

[Costa Rica Chica]

Originally Posted by NYrules

It's true, Chicago is like entering a third world country now with a few exceptions and generally those exceptions are where the wealth is found, the rest of the city continues to slide into further decay.

Lol, this headline says - "Streets with holes or holes with streets?"

¿Calles con huecos o huecos con calles? - Nacionales - aldia.co.cr

It can be worse!

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by NYrules

I commend these people in Austin for embarrasing the city like this. It's true, Chicago is like entering a third world country now with a few exceptions and generally those exceptions are where the wealth is found, the rest of the city continues to slide into further decay. I don't care what anyone says, by FAR the worst roads in the country for not only surface conditions, but also poorly timed signals that are now being purposely poorly timed and having cameras installed on them to entice motorists to run the red lights so the city can rip you off further and the capacity of the roads being only about 40 years behind times (2 lane roads everywhere) makes Chicago a horrible place to drive.

Actually, one of the things I really love about the city is that most of its roads are only two lanes wide! Huge roads for me tend to kill the vibe of the street-life and being a pedestrian.

[Drover]

Would it be too cynical to suggest that it would never happen because it would eliminate too many patronage make-work jobs?


YouTube - VDOT: Pothole Killer

[Steve-o]

Looks like a big mess, and probably an expensive one at that.

[Lookout Kid]

Patching potholes is a necessity, but it's only a short-term fix to a growing problem. Chicago used to resurface each road after a certain number of years on a rotating schedule. Roads with heavier use or truck traffic were resurfaced on shorter intervals. Ever since this was abandoned by Daley (it's costly), we have had really terrible roads in Chicago. And they are only getting worse with each passing year as the deferred maintenance snowballs.

This is a problem at all levels of government right now, including federal highways. When are people going to realize that infrastructure maintenance costs less in the long run because it delays replacement costs? It's simple life cycle cost analysis--something our governments are completely unable to do because they only look at one budget year at a time. Our taxes are artificially low right now becuase of deferred infrastructure costs and deferred pension investments. We are setting ourselves up for a terrible fall, and pushing the national debt higher only exacerbates the problem. It's a Catch-22 because raising taxes is a drain on the economy.