Friday, February 15, 2008

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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still it is surprising how fast the snow evaporates around here.

And if it makes you feel better there is one creature around my house who's delirious with joy over the puffy white stuff. (but he also loves loves loves freezing rain)

mister anchovy said...

our cat shadow really likes the snow too...go figure

Candy Minx said...

There isn't enough money in the city for decent care. The cutbacks that occurred in the 90's have never had a replacement budget...who is oing to give more money?

People are idiots...they don't understand that taxes need to go higher in order to accomodat inflation and the difference between the city budget and spending in the 80's since the cutbacks in the 90's.

As I said earlier...you can't "do more with less" ...People do less with less.

Taxes need to be raised...and with a pre-planned budget in place for what those taxes should be.

When that idiot Harris and Lastman made "megacity" they allowed the lbastards in the burbs to pay less taxes...it used to be that burbs paid more taxes to compensate for their use of the down town streets.

Since they are now "part of downtown" they don't have to pay to drive downtown...meanwhile...how many downtowners go out to hang in the burbs? Right...a disporportionatly very few compared to those who come downtown from burbs for sports, concerts and shoppping.

When idiots make cutbacks...we have to raise taxes and compensate for loss of services as a result...

but good luck finding anyone who wants to pay more for their complaints via taxes...

mister anchovy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mister anchovy said...

I don't have an issue with more taxes as long as I believe the government of the day is spending my money wisely and not pissing it into the wind.