Several weeks ago, I conducted a little experiment to see how well or poorly our Department of Public Works is on top of things. Call it the DPW budget and attention test. They failed. Miserably. And they're still failing. Miserably. Apparently, their budget and Rob Perry's salary are still not high enough for them to pay attention or attend to the most basic of tasks we expect of them.
Via email and with pictures, I notified several people in City Hall (Perry, his foreman, the DPW clerk, the mayor, his assistant, the police chief, and others) of one enormous pothole in the 500 block of Rope Alley west of Dodge Street. I had noticed the hole weeks before. A few days before the email, I saw the DPW garbage truck roll into and over the hole -- first the front passenger wheel then the back wheels -- and watched the 20-ton truck teeter back and forth. I had a question for Mishanda Franklin: "How many patrol cops have passed by, avoided or hit this pothole and done nothing about informing DPW about it so that it can be filled? For how many more months are you okay with this pothole being ignored by DPW? How much damage does a pothole of this size cause a HPD vehicle that hits it?"
For Perry, I think my question was something along these lines: "Why the hell have you not filled this hole that your garbage truck and other vehicles have a difficult time avoiding and that your workers must be well aware of for at least the past two months?"
Within two days, the enormous pothole was filled with asphalt by DPW.
What I purposely did not inform anyone about in my email were two adjacent, smaller but no less obvious potholes one half block away in the alley at 6th Street (I can't do ALL their fucking work for them!). Today, about two months later, those potholes are still there, and they have only gotten deeper and wider. A DPW truck with a crew of two and all the equipment and material necessary to fill those holes couldn't get it done two months ago when they were right there in the neighborhood filling at least one other pothole. Apparently, Rob Perry still doesn't have enough money in his budget to get things taken care of.
Practically every vehicle -- including every city vehicle -- hits one of those two potholes when entering or exiting Rope Alley at 6th. Of course, no vehicle drivers or passengers have been or will be sent to the hospital after hitting one of those potholes. But if you step in the deeper hole "by mistake," you just might be on your way to the emergency room, possibly with a ruined ankle or worse. What a horrible "accident," especially in the dark of night. Then, do you suppose, DPW just might find the time and asphalt to fill the fucking holes? Would Rob The Slob Perry make sure it gets done so that no one else steps in the holes that have been around for months ignored by him and his foreman?
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| I'm almost certain that DPW patched this area last summer. |
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| Generally, our alleys are a mess and worsening fast. |
What the hell? Why can't Rob Perry get his job done, and why is it necessary to tell him where potholes are that have been waiting to be filled for months? What is getting in the way of DPW filling obvious potholes? Is it fixing (or replacing) the warrior heroes banners on the downtown streetlight poles, an activity which I witnessed a few days ago? Or are they adding more of the banners that have been around too long and are mostly ignored? Are we paying DPW to attend to those banners while they ignore potholes all over the place? We're paying Rob Perry and his foreman to do what?
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