In November of 1996 the voters approved the 1/2% sales tax increase for infrastructure improvement. (It was voted down 2 years earlier) From the begining of '97 to the end of '09 this tax has collected prox $67 million. Anyone & everyone who makes a purchase in Victyoria is paying this tax, not just property owners, and the the tax is currently producing about 1/2 million dollars per month.
Back in '96, people were complaining about Sam Houston St. just as they are today. Voters were ...'sold' ... on the idea that this money was going to fix streets, fix drainage, fix sewer lines, fix potholes, etc. You can see that the 'sales job' has not lived up to reality.
Every time a new 'crisis' or pet project comes up (overpasses, Airline extension, softball fields, hike & bike trails, etc) this fund is tapped to pay for it. All of these items ARE infrastructure and they technically qualify for these funds ,,, but they are not street repair, which is what the voters wanted when they voted this tax on themselves. You can only spend this money one time so ... street repair gets pushed back on the list, or further into the future. When you hear politician say, "they have 'discresonary' funds", this is what they are talking about.
Fixing the streets is not very 'glamorous' so the politicians allocate this money to what ever the currently fashionable cause of the day is. AND the Advocate will run editorials saying 'We Need Overpasses' and the next day run an editorial saying 'We Need the Streets Fixed'. Folks, you've got 'x' amount of money ... What do you want to do with it?
For myself, I say fix the streets! That is what I voted for in 1996! It is the only time in my life I ever voted to increase my own taxes ... and judging from the results over 13 years ... I wish I could get my money back. Does anybody think that any of us has a chance of doing that?

Mockingbird has always been horrible, Airline is probably the best of the three mentioned, Red River not good. One of the Bens was much better than the other, I don't remember which one though. Aside from Navarro & Main/87....all the rest of the major roads pretty much blow.

N45BA, you can add Crestwood to that list.

I love the line
As they drive the street, it's that person's interpretation," he said. "So, yeah it is somewhat subjective
Yep, driving down Red River will only knock off a hub cap, Sam Houston will knock your front end out of alignment.

Longdistanceshot:

When the late Wayne Watkins was a member of the town council he was able to get a 0.5 cent tax passed just for street repairs. The better questions is, "Where is that money"?. My guess is to appease some yahoo that has a pet project he/she wants accomplished and to heck with the streets. I must agree with you, the streets in this town are deplorable and the people that rate them have no idea what they are doing other than what they are told by the town government. Sad state of affairs in this frontier burg.

The streets of Vic are the WORST streets I have ever traveled on....and that is NO exaggeration! I travel to Houston, Dallas, SA, and many smaller towns in between often and none are as bad as the very town I live it. IT's just a crying shame! What liars we have to say they are getting better...ya (their) "wallets" are getting better (fatter) by putting out such lies, so, of course they would say that.

The bad apple here is getting "recommendations" from the Asphalt Institute.
With gumbo soil beneath you can asphalt all you want, the streets
will begin to deteriorate just as soon as the first vehicle drives
over it.
What is needed for the city streets is rebar (sp?) reinforced concrete.
Getting advice from the Asphalt Institute is like having the
coyote guard the egg laying hens!
I think after all these years of failed paving someone, somewhere of those who are in charge of street maintenance is getting 'silver lining' from the so called Asphalt Institute to keep this
insanity of pouring the taxpayers money and asphalt over more
asphalt over the city's wavy-gravy streets.
City Fathers; get a grip!

I worked for an oilfield construction company out of Beeville. We had a machine that was designed to repair potholes in the road. It rented for $3,000 per week and was pulled behind a dump truck which carried the road material (rocks). This machine would blow the pothole clean with high pressure air, then I would coat the pothole with liquid asphalt and then a mixture of asphalt and the small road material. Mound it over on the top so the traffic can compact it to level. I was done in about 3 minutes per pothole. That is what Victoria needs to do to the residential streets for a temp fix until they all can be redone in concrete!

What do you think Victoria? Does that seem like a solution to the current problem? Cheap and fast!

The streets in victoria are bad, I can not believe the city wants to brainwash people to believe that they are getting better.Please let me know which one are in good shape.My husband always had said that we dont have to take the children to the carnival to get on rides we can get a thrill riding on the streets in Victoria . Instead of wanting to give the downtown area a make over ,start with the streets so people would want to even drive there. But our City Council is all confused they dont know if they are coming or going.I still dont understand how they stay in office, i guess the people our brainwashed.