Jan 2, 2008

23rd Avenue: a warning and a question

1) The City really likes the red light camera system (which takes automatic pictures of violators). They're going to install 24 more cameras, several of them will be around Capitol Hill: the most relevant to us will be Southbound on 23rd @ East John.

2) 23rd Avenue is the major north-south arterial in our neighborhood. There are many large, dangerous potholes in its surface, much of which seems to be deteriorating badly. (and here's a note about the narrow width of 23rd south of Madison)

Question: should we try and get the City to fix the surface, or should we encourage neglect, and let the bad road surface help to slow down traffic? Your thoughts, please.

If you are in favor of fixing the road, send me some pictures of potholes that you can safely photograph (with locations). These ones are at 23rd & Olive, opposite the Safeway.

5 comments:

Andrew Taylor said...

An E-mailed comment:

Leaving the bad spots alone may be better:

Repairs generally are only temporary
Not only will the bad spots slow down traffic, it may also divert a small amount of it

Unknown said...

I vote for not fixing the potholes. If you have to drive down (south), I recommend staying in the lane towards the center. It's a lot smoother than the lane on the right.

Anonymous said...

I have been waiting for the city to
replace the sewer/water lines as they did South of Madison years ago.
That would absolutely take care of the resurfacing issue.

Anonymous said...

I nearly kill myself all the time as I'm bicycling around capitol hill/miller park area - trying to swerve to avoid the endless potholes or else, running through them unknowingly. It's just one more distraction/variable in addition to everything else that I have to pay attention to while trying to bike defensively and safely. So in that light, they should fix them.

However, maybe if the city continues to let them go and rot further, the situaton will get so atrocious that they can be finally be shamed into actually re-paving our third world streets - which is what they REALLY need to do!!!!

Anonymous said...

CAN I HEAR AN AMEN!