Pothole Politics Expose What’s Wrong with Los Angeles

CITY HALL-They don’t make pants like they used to. 

Mine always seem to be shrinking, and that means a trip to see George the tailor for a little breathing room. 

George has a shop in the West Valley, off a tiny slice of Ponce Avenue. Chances are you’ve never driven on it since it only runs a hundred yards before dead-ending at Del Valle Street, with the 101 Freeway looming above. But Ponce Avenue has taken on special meaning for me; I see it as the canary in the coal mine of civic health for the city of Los Angeles. 

That’s a lot of pressure to put on one crummy little street, especially when Ponce Avenue is just one of thousands of crumbling, pothole-perforated patches of asphalt that pass for roads in Los Angeles. 

But that’s why I keep an eye on it. When streets like Ponce Avenue are properly maintained, we’ll know city government is functioning well.

Unfortunately Ponce hasn’t been resurfaced since the Westfield Mall was an orange grove, and we have streets on the Eastside that haven’t been paved since Charlie ran Chaplin Studios. 

Last week KCBS (Channel 2) reporter David Goldstein exposed Bureau of Street Services crews frittering away their workday, with some crews clocking as little as two hours of actual work during an eight-hour shift. Goldstein caught road crews eating breakfast while on the job or squandering an hour reading newspapers, something I’m personally willing to overlook as long as they’re reading this newspaper. 

Goldstein also reported some crews actually completed their entire day’s assignments in just a few hours, which points to a management failure rather than worker malfeasance. If the Bureau of Street Services is looking for projects to fill up their days, how about sending a crew to Ponce Avenue? 

But the most shocking detail in the KCBS report was the revelation that Los Angeles only has 12 two-man crews to fill all the potholes in a city with more holes in it than the plot of an Adam Sandler movie. 

Fortunately Bureau of Street Services director Nazario Sauceda is a diligent supervisor.

... Of the media. 

While sitting for an interview with Goldstein, Sauceda was accompanied by two publicists, a staffer videotaping Goldstein while Goldstein videotaped him, and a fourth staffer guarding the door. 

With the City Council pushing for a half-cent sales tax hike to fix roads we’ve already paid to fix, you’d think our leaders would be all over Street Services. Yet the KCBS report seems to have taken City Hall by surprise. 

LA Board of Public Works President Kevin James promises an investigation, although for the life of me I don’t know what’s left to investigate. Anybody who’s ever driven in this town knows we have Frankenroads — patched up and pockmarked, slurry-seal-scarred, front-end destroying streets that are streets in name only. 

In a radio interview, James said the Board of Public Works lacks the resources to independently investigate road crews and indicated budget cuts may have left the Street Services Bureau short-handed when it comes to supervisors. 

Maybe Sauceda could lend the Board of Public Works the guy he had videotaping him in his office?

With the Street Services’ dirty laundry hung out for everyone to see on TV, Mayor Eric Garcetti, James and Councilman Mitch Englander are promising quick action. Englander even floated the threat of jail time for slackers, which seems a little over-the-top. 

I mean who hasn’t goofed off a little? I spent 30 minutes on Facebook before I wrote this column.

But this story transcends checking personal email on city time or other petty offenses. The KCBS report reveals a cultural indifference to job performance that we experience every time we back the car out of the driveway. 

In his inaugural address last July, Garcetti promised a “back to basics” administration with improved city services like tree trimming, sidewalk repair and street maintenance. Nothing is more basic than filling potholes. We’re not asking for a cure for cancer or peace in the Middle East. Just a little asphalt. 

If you want to see Los Angeles in a nutshell, drop your drawers at “Alterations by George.” 

They’ll be ready on Tuesday.

 

(Doug McIntyre is morning radio host at KABC and writes for the Daily News … where this column was first posted. Doug can be reached at: [email protected])

-cw

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 12 Issue 45

Pub: June 3, 2014