A Los Angeles resident's attempt to get a large pothole on his property repaired has devolved into a public relations headache for Mayor Karen Bass, after the city's attempted fix was widely criticized as shoddy and ineffective. The homeowner reported submitting a request to the county for repair over three months ago, with the pothole having accumulated rubble for over a year prior to that.
Early Monday morning, the homeowner was awakened by an asphalt truck, expecting a proper repair. Instead, he found workers had allegedly "just splashing it around everywhere," leaving asphalt spread across the area rather than filling the crater. "The worst pothole filling I’ve ever seen, after 13 months waiting," the resident posted on Reddit, accompanied by images of the poorly executed repair. The post quickly drew criticism directed at Mayor Bass.
This incident follows a recent controversy where Bass addressed a pothole repair by instead installing "no parking" signs, stating that a repair couldn't be done with a car parked in the way. "So we couldn’t repair the pothole," Bass said in a social media video. "So you know what we did? We put up no parking signs so that hopefully there won’t be anybody parked here tomorrow morning." This approach also angered residents who are reportedly frustrated with the state of the city's roads.
According to reports, a majority of Los Angeles's 22,000 lane miles are facing structural failure. Budget constraints have reportedly forced the city to rely on temporary "spot-treating" and individual pothole patching, a strategy that appears to be failing residents.