Monday, April 14, 2014

Bumpy Road

Potholes are bad.

That's an inside joke.  I'm sorry.

However, today's topic is potholes-- something I've refrained writing about, in depth (pardon the pun) here.  But, the weather's been nice for a few weeks.  Potholes are almost as bad as ever.  There's no excuse, and it's time we talk about it.

I do most of my traveling in Lackawanna County, so I'll focus on the problems there.  Penn Avenue, Davis Street, Woodlawn Street, North Washington Avenue, the area around the old Scranton Lace, the Olyphant side of the "anchor" in Blakely...  all hideous.  I'm sure there are more, throughout our area, and I'm not picking on the people in those places-- just pointing out examples.

For weeks, I've been willing to cut the people in charge some slack.  This is the worst winter in a while.  Above normal snow.  Below normal cold.  Plenty of freeze/thaw cycles.  Check the calendar.  It's mid April and these problems should be fixed by now.

As I drove on awful roads the other morning, one of the possible reasons for the pothole issue jumped out at me.  It's embarrassment.  Once public sector employees, starting at the very bottom, and going to the very top, lose their capability of being embarrassed, it's all over.  Unfortunately, we have a lot of people, in important positions, who cannot be embarrassed.  It makes no difference whether it's the municipality level, or the county, or the state. If they were embarrassed by the condition of the roads, they'd be fixed.

Now that we've identified the problem, what about a solution?  It's simple.  Demand better.