Oh the irony

As I mentioned here, my neighbor was told that the entire city-wide street improvement project(which includes our street) was supposed to be done by May 8, or June 27. The correct date depends on who you talk to.

All of the other streets are getting much simpler improvements. As I've walked the dog I noticed in some cases they ripped out broken/crumbling curbs and replaced them with new ones. In some cases they removed sections of cracked asphalt (leaving them with loose gravel and dirt) and will replace the street surface. Our street had the most involved work: a complete reconstruction. That is because they completely removed our street, planted drainage pipes, and plan to correct the curvature of the street ("straighten" the street) when they pave it. Someday. Maybe by June 27.

With all the rain we've had, my neighbor got frustrated with the swamp-like condition of our street and called and emailed the city manager. He suggested that if the street was not going to be paved very soon, a temporary fix should be implemented, such as a layer of fine gravel distributed over the street, to mitigate the mud and pooling of rain water. One day last week the construction company delivered the equivalent to a wheel barrow full of gravel and smoothed it over the puddle in front of my neighbor's house. That's it. That's what they felt they could do to mitigate the mud and pooling of rain water.

Despite all the calls and emails from my neighbor and other frustrated residents to finish our street, yesterday the road stripper began working on the street that runs parallel to ours. It stripped off the top layer of asphalt, in preparation to resurface the street.

It is unthinkable to me why the city would allow what used to be our street to remain in this condition while they continue to do construction work on other streets.

Just pave the damn street already!

You may have noticed this has become a real source of frustration to me. This is the 10th week of street reconstruction, and the 6th week since any progress was made on our street. Every time we walk the dog, get the mail, take out the trash, or get into our cars our shoes get muddy/dirty/sandy. Despite wiping our feet thoroughly on the door mats we've still managed to track a beach worth of sand into our house. We now have to leave our shoes on the front porch to keep from ruining our wood floors. I'm really getting sick of it.

Crush du Jour: Brandon Beemer