Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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07/06/2010: "A Life's Work"
Indeed, maybe trying to get the City of Los Angeles to fix the infamous "Hudson River" on 4th Street will be my life's work after all...since they seem completely uninterested in doing anything more than dumping some cold patch into the water and dancing around on it a little bit.I have personally called it in to Bureau of Street Services five times, and, bless them, five times they have indeed come out and patched it.
The last two times the patch has lasted less than two months. And now it's back to its traditional nastiness, as you can see in the picture below....
Yes, that's a 700C wheel shod with 32mm tires in there, resting on the jagged, algae-slick bottom of this Pit of Doom:
It has been filled with water day and night for over a decade, the result of outflow from a sump pump half a block up the street. This on a designated bike route heavily used by LA cyclists, and which the LACBC (with whom I am working on the project) is hoping to make LA's first bicycle boulevard.
Several cyclists have broken bones here, and at least one is suing the city.
My question is, Why can't LA put a trench drain across 4th St. here, so that the water doesn't pool and undermine the pavement, and no longer nurtures algae growth during the warmer months? (And in LA, most months are warmer months....) There are plenty of them on streets surrounding the Hudson River.
I'll call it in again, but it would be nice to have it fixed for real, you know.
If you want to help, you can join us at LACBC in our project to make 4th a bicycle boulevard...or if you live in CD4, contact council member Tom LaBonge's office about it--but only if you've had personal experience of the Hudson River.
It's almost insulting that they've treated this problem so casually for so many years....
