City Beat - Potholes, Potholes, Potholes

We have some of the biggest potholes you can imagine in the Toronto area right now. Where is the worst of them? I would say, St. Clair Ave, driving east near Gunn's Loop, by the old stockyards. It is getting seriously dangerous to drive a car through there. Another bad stretch is along Eglinton Ave. in Mississauga between Renforth and Dixie, driving east, in the right-hand lane. There are some big and remarkably deep potholes through there. There has been some active patching along Eglinton, but the St. Clair stretch has simply been deteriorating over the past couple years with what seems like no effort at all to patch them up. I presume the idea is not not sink any money into the street until the tracks get ripped up for the TTC right-of-way. It is very difficult for the city staff to be on top of these potholes when we have so much snow, but I think it is reasonable to expect some basic maintenance when the weather allows.

Speaking of weather, I hear we may get another snowstorm on Sunday or Monday. Swell. We've already broken records for February snowfall here, and I've just about run out of places to put the stuff. Usually during or just after the storm, I hear an interview on the radio with some character from the city telling us that the main streets get priority but that all the side streets would be cleared within 24 hours. Har! That's a good one. On our street, which is a one-way residential street with street parking and speedbumps and no room to pile snow, the best we can hope for is a plow that takes just enough off the top that it's possible to carefully get through the snow. Residents pile their snow on the street, because there isn't any other place to put it.


The video is Potholes in my Lawn, by de la Soul.