Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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03/11/2011: "Halfway Isn't Quite Good Enough (Hudson River Update III)"
I've got to give the city some credit: a year after I ferreted out the source of the "Hudson River's" constant flow of water, which has bred slick algae and undermined the street at this corner of 4th and Hudson along one of LA's most-used bike routes, they finally got the homeowner responsible to hook his sump pump directly to the storm drain, as I wrote here.The flow, which had run for a decade and a half at least, has been absent for an entire week. (There has been occasional water there from lawn sprinklers, but that is typical and not constant.) I had, perhaps foolishly, assumed that now the Bureau of Street Services would repair the jagged pothole, and do a proper job of it, and especially remove the Asphalt Death Cake that stood in the center of the pit like a black, broken fang in some monstrous jaw.
Just to make sure, I got on the BSS website and sent a notice of the hazard in, which has usually resulted in pretty quick action, I must say.
But not this time. Today I went back to the "Hudson River" and took the photos you see below, hoping to show exactly what the cyclists of Wilshire West have to deal with on this otherwise tranquil, tree-shaded, sharrowed street.
Take a stiff drink now, and scroll down....
This is how it looks as you approach it:
This is how it looks if you land in it:
Try to go around it, and the city left some deep, soft gravel for you to ride through:
Really, this is a death pit for cyclists...how the city can let this continue to exist for years on end on what is planned to be a showpiece of local bicycle infrastructure is beyond me. Bones have been broken here--bones of the very bicycle commuters the city claims to be encouraging.
The city employs thousands of engineers, skilled workers, laborers, and contractors.
So how come we can't fix this hole in the street?
