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Pothole Patrol: Where are Victoria's worst potholes?
By watchdog in Watchdog
January 12, 2009

Do you have to swerve every day to miss a giant pothole in the street? Ever damaged a tire in those deep, jagged nuisances?

I'm beginning a new project, as part of my Watchdog column and blog, called Pothole Patrol.

I want to document where the city's potholes are, and then report on them all until they are fixed.

Where are Victoria's worst potholes?

Please contact me with the locations of Victoria's potholes, and then tell me about how bad (deep, jagged, wide, etc.) they are.

I want to document every pothole in the city. We hope to build a map that shows where they exist.

You can contact me in here, at 361-580-6519 or gsemenza@vicad.com.

If possible, PLEASE E-MAIL ME PHOTOS, which I will include in here for all to see, once verified. I plan to document each pothole's dimensions, too.

We will rank the potholes worst to least worst -- ranked likely by the size of the potholes.

Every two weeks -- beginning Wednesday, Jan. 21 -- in my print column, I'll report about the worst. Each week, I'll show you in here all the potholes we find.

But I need your help.

Hopefully, we can draw attention to these sometimes dangerous -- and always annoying -- potholes, and hopefully we can get them fixed.

When potholes are fixed, I'll report that, too. Then, we can give each other a collective online pat on the back :)

Thanks for your help,

Gabe Semenza / Advocate public service editor

Comments


  • mracp mracp Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    Lowonair,
    Why be so critical? If you didn't notice, Gabe is trying to help the community, regardless of whether you agree with his technique or not.  And yes, he IS working on other things. Potholes just happens to be in this one blog.

    What I'll never understand is why people are so quick to criticize or denounce something, or someone, before they attempt to understand the whole story. That's exactly what you did. Did you read back on what Gabe has already done? It's free to read here online, and it's been in the newspaper. Feel free to educate yourself with it, and you'll understand and appreciate what he's doing. There should be MORE people out there doing this type stuff.  Learning. Asking. DOING! But no, they'd rather sit, criticize and complain, just like you. And you choose to criticize the very person who's trying to help.

    Poor choice, lowonair.
    Poor choice by you, and all the others who choose to disrespectfully criticize those who sincerely try to help.

    January 22, 2009 at 9:58 a.m.

  • watchdog watchdog Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    Thanks for the comments, lowonair.
    Advocate crime reporter Leslie Wilber reports on crimes every day. Be sure to check out our blotter by clicking here. She also regularly writes about crimes and standoffs.
    As for human and drug smuggling from Mexico, I've been reporting on that for 10 months now -- in an ongoing feature we call the Fatal Funnel. View that feature by clicking here.
    The look at potholes isn't the focus of my Watchdog column and blog. The feature is a small snippet to include in it.
    Gabe

    January 18, 2009 at 9:16 p.m.

  • lowonair lowonair Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    youre a "watchdog" reporting on potholes? why not report on something worth reporting. how about gang vioence, burglaries, robberies, home invasions, muggings, drugs, all the smuggling from mexico, and other actual crimes.  theres bigger things to complain about than potholes and teen pregnancy.

    January 18, 2009 at 8:48 p.m.

  • watchdog watchdog Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    Thanks, dejasmom. Do you know of any bad potholes on city streets?

    January 13, 2009 at 1:37 p.m.

  • Dejasmom Dejasmom Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    What about bad patch jobs? Those can be almost as bad as potholes. I used to drive down Delmar, between North Street and the Port Lavaca Highway, but have avoided that stretch of road for quite some time as the untrained monkeys they hired to "fix" the potholes only made the problem worse.
    Oh and I know it doesn't quality for your blog as it's not a city road, but whoever patched the back part of the mall's parking lot [the lanes in the corner behind JC Penney's salon entrance] needs to find a new line of work. That is quite possibly the worst patch job in history. It's so bad that only a few days after it reopened, they closed it again and repatched it -- WHICH ONLY MADE IT THAT MUCH WORSE.

    January 13, 2009 at 1:02 p.m.