If you’re a piece of asphalt, you’ll do fine in Florida or California. You really don’t want to be laid down in Chicago.
That’s because this city’s notorious freeze-and-thaw cycle, as our annual fool’s spring messes with our psyche, is bad news for blacktop and concrete. Potholes are popping up this month like potential candidates for mayor of Chicago.
It was always like this, you say? It sure doesn’t feel that way this year as you drive down, say, Ashland Avenue and find a hole so big that it could swallow your front end. One pothole we noticed was sufficiently deep to take you down halfway to the earth’s crust. Or so it seems when it busts the alignment of your long-suffering car.
The forces of good are not easy to find when it comes to the scourge of potholes, which explains why many of Chicago’s potholes appear to have been filled this spring by volunteer citizens armed with plywood, sweatshirts (we’ve seen that) or rubble of unknown origin.
Yes, we know Chicagoans can claim compensation for the destructive ways of potholes, although good luck venturing into that particular black hole. Lots of folks decide it is more trouble than it’s worth, or they don’t grasp the extent of damage until they head to the repair shop weeks later.
So, a modest proposal: the resurfacing of Chicago’s arteries has lagged during the pandemic. Many of our streets are a total mess. Let’s spend some of that federal reconstruction money not just on the big, sexy projects that politicians love but on the simple quotidian task of creating a smooth surface for motorists and cyclists.
It will help calm us all down.
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