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The Paradox of Street Repair

· Posted Wednesday August 30, 2006 by jamie

Last night, the City Council passed a resolution which will put before voters in the November election Proposition 1, a measure to increase the regular property tax levy in order to finance residential street maintenance. (See city council agenda and voting record and TNT article.)

The big question swirling around the issue, according to the Trib, is that of why streets cannot be repaired at current taxation levels. My question, however, is much different: do we really want to do this at all?

I realize that to some extent, the quality of our roads reflects poorly on our city, and we have a lot of poor road surfaces (6600 blocks out of 8810 in the city need repair, according to city officials, per the TNT article). Yet at the same time I don’t think we are looking at “Third World” conditions, as our honorable Mayor declared earlier this year.

Partially at issue for me is traffic control. The street we live on has its own impressive array of potholes, yet people still speed past with reckless abandon at all hours of they day. I shiver to think what would happen if a smooth new road surface was put in place…

I think we need to take some time to differentiate what roads are important to fix and which we can leave be. Target arterials and bike routes for resurfacing improvements. (And while we’re at it, maybe extends some existing bike routes…what’s with the South 15th bike lane ending several blocks short of downtown???) Maybe look into adding curbs to some of the neighborhoods that don’t have them (which seems much more “third world” than a few potholes to me). Leave the cobblestone streets alone on non-arterials, and only fix those potholes severe enough that they might cause damage, so that traffic conditions on exclusively residential thoroughfares can keep a bit of their sanity through “natural potholes”.

I think we can do a lot better (for cheaper) than trying to fix everything.

See some previous discussion at exit133.


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Comments:

  1. Good points! Does this tax package give at least some money to bike lanes and new/improved sidewalks? If not, there’s no way I’m voting yes!

    — MG    Aug 30, 12:34 PM    #

  2. we must vote no on prop1. I live in the southside/eastside border, and there are main roads such as 64th st east of pacific avenue that do not even have curbs. In my intersection alone, there has been three accidnets within the last year, and after communications with the city, they would not consider putting in speed bumps, traffic islands, or even signs (I live right next to fawcett elementary, and there are not even school signs on my road, yet there are school signs two blocks further away from the school.) Weird huh.

    — CO    Sep 1, 10:47 AM    #