Oakland crews face daunting backlog of potholes on city streets
OAKLAND - Oakland street crews filled an estimated 2,700 potholes over the past six weeks, city officials said Monday, announcing the start of a pothole repair blitz now that the winter storms have passed.
The rains have stopped--at least for now--but the toll they've taken on Oakland's roads can no longer be ignored. When Jennifer Gembe Ramirez gets into her car and heads up 73rd Avenue, it feels more like a slalom course.
"I'm always kind of like swerving trying to not go through a pothole," she said, "because my car and the tires...I don't want it to be broken or damaged, you know?"
Most cars cruising through the neighborhood drive on the wrong side of the street to avoid the inch-and-a-half-deep craters.
"It looks like a war zone, and mortars went off everywhere," said Derrick Harris, who lost two tires because of the potholes. "I've been deployed a few times and I've seen better roads in Iraq and Afghanistan than I've seen in Oakland."
But Raymundo Castelo ran out of luck the other day.
"Um, my suspension broke because of the potholes," he said. "They're horrible and I spent, like, $1,200 to fix it."
So, on Monday morning, the mayor and other city officials arrived at 73rd Ave with shovels in hand, not for a groundbreaking--that's already happened--but to try to smooth things over with a public that's getting sick of the bumpy ride.
"It's basically, you can't fill potholes during the rain," said Fred Kelley, Director of Oakland's Department of Transportation. "We had to wait out the rain, and, thankfully, it stopped. But it took a while."
"Today, we're focused on the hot topic," said Mayor Sheng Thao. "Of course, it's the "Pothole Blitz."
Thao said, in just March alone, the city filled more than 2,700 potholes, three times the normal amount. And with the "blitz," which will last through May, they say they will be targeting the worst streets in the city first. That's what brought them to 73rd Avenue. But it's not like the holes there are anything new.
"I feel like it's been like that for a while now," said Jennifer Gembe Ramirez. "I don't remember a time when it's ever been really nice and smooth."
She said she's grateful for the pothole patches that a crew was busy installing but can't help noticing that other neighborhoods get their entire streets repaved when things get that bad.
"I feel like low-income neighborhoods always get the end of it--end of the stick," she said. "So, I'm hoping it changes, but...I don't really see any changes coming in the near future."
One problem is that the "OAK 311" reporting line had been down since February due to the ransomware attack on the city. But officials say it's now back up and running, and citizens can once again report troublesome potholes in their neighborhoods. And while the city might say there's only so much to go around, folks living on 73rd Avenue think they've had more than their fair share of potholes, and it's time for others to enjoy the adventure.