The State of Rope? Not So Good!

One and a half of the three blocks of upper Rope Alley are closed to through traffic this weekend due to a recent sinkhole and a house demolition done weeks ago.  The entire 600 block of Rope was closed off on Thursday morning after DPW excavated the sinkhole behind 610 State (which HUDseen wrote about on Tuesday), covered it with plywood, and never came back yesterday to continue work.  Why they didn't wait until Monday to begin is beyond me.

After three weeks, half of the 400 block of Rope Alley -- between Carroll and Short -- is still blocked (at Short).  While there is now evidence of some recent work at the site where the asphalt of the alley meets the hole left behind after the demolition of 59 Short, the going has been slow.  Really slow.  No one seems to be in a rush to reopen that portion of the alley.  One wonders what the issue is.  And one wonders if the situation were instead in the 500 block of Prison Alley or Cherry Alley, if there would still be no sense of urgency to reopen the alley.  During his DPW report early this week, Rob Perry did not mention anything about the situation with the off limits alley next to 59 Short.  Not a peep.  And why would he?

3 weeks and counting

Rope at 6th looking east

I forgot to include this picture in Thursday's article about navigating the sidewalk in the 300 block of State Street.  It really should be prominently featured on the city's website, shouldn't it be?

Non-existent editor's note:  The original publication of this article consistently referred to "Dodge Street" when Short Street should have been used.  I have a difficult time not confusing the names of those two short streets.  For this error, I apologize for any confusion.