Staten Island Plagued by Potholes

Mayor's office

Long the most ignored borough, Staten Island is feeling particularly overlooked as their streets continue to be filled with potholes (much to the chagrin of Pothole Phil). Now, City Councilman James Oddo wants the Department of Transportation to explain their negligence. The Staten Island Advance reports that Mr. Oddo has invited the DOT to a "Road Conditions Summit," hoping they will discuss plans to fix up damaging and dangerous potholes in the city's most car-dependent borough. "We want to know what the next 100 streets are, what the plan is to get us to consistently driveable [sic] streets."

Just last month, the Bloomberg administration celebrated the filling of their 2 millionth pothole in Midland Beach, Staten Island, declaring, "We have given New Yorkers the power to help the City get the job done through 311, and by adding another set of eyes on the street with our SCOUT inspectors." But the DOT has fallen behind on that task for Staten Island. At least nobody's blowing the situation out of proportion—one local just thinks the holes on his block feel like "craters that could have been made by a B-52 air strike," that's all.

Mr. Oddo wrote a letter to DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, saying, "I have read numerous accounts of how cities across this nation are currently struggling with the personnel and budgetary challenges created by street conditions left in the wake of such a miserable winter. With that said, however, Staten Islanders expect their government to have an answer to this problem." He has been crusading for long-lasting repairs like "strip-paving" instead of individual pothole repairs, and more durable concrete bases for the streets. This fiscal year, the DOT has already filled 42,915 potholes in the borough, but there are still a lot more Staten Island holes to go.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jaya Saxena in News on April 7, 2010 9:42 AM

Comments [rss]

JacqueMehoff

one would think the mayor would take care of his favorite borough. hasn't staten island consistently voted for bloomberg and republicans?

cxb

Bloomberg doesn't care about ANYONE.

He only caters to rich corporations to expand his influence.

DUH: Mike Bloomberg is still 12 years old and SHORT, HOMELY, and has no personality, so he was disliked by EVERYONE. As a result, this Mini-Hitler hates the entire world and only cares about himself (and rewards the Skylers who help him fuck over everyone).

That's why the limos crash into the same potholes as my bike does. Mike hates everyone, b/c no one likes him.

FUN FACT: Psycho Mike is literally the first politician in history to have ZERO SUPPORTERS who are sincere!

Even Hitler, Genghis Khan, Sarah Palin, and others have SINCERE supporters.

Mike had to BRIBE them all or mislead them all with the media. It's really quite sad. His own mom probably hates Bloomberg, which is WHY he dedicated his life to becoming super-rich and putting his NAME on everything.

(DUH: it was his "revenge" against those who didn't like him: "BLOOMBERG!" "BLOOMBERG!" "BLOOMBERG!" "remember me? you didn't like mousy me! well now I'm super rich and superpowerful and the entire media says I'm the greatest!")

Pathetic and immature.

WORST. HUMAN. EVER.

(Even Hitler was far smarter, more charismatic, more honest, and more humane than Bloombag, and if you think I'm kidding visit "HitlerandBloomberg.blogspot.co...". I'll debate any 20 historians you can gather anytime any place. NONE of you know any details of what Bloombag SECRETLY does.)

cxb

But the OTHER FOUR boroughs have third world roads too.

I cycled on the upper east side recently and Bloomberg doesn't even give a fuck about the quality of life of the RICH!

He's a psychopath who refuses to try and fix anything in NYC.

(FUN FACT: repaving streets is not as hard as it sounds. But when you're shifting all monies to corporate welfare --- after promising no corporate welfare to cheat elections --- NYC decays.)

NEVER FORGET:

Bloombag has $20 BILLION MORE PER YEAR to spend than Looney Giuliani did, and even that nutjob did a far better job of running this city.

2001 NYC BUDGET: $40 billion.

2009 NYC BUDGET: $60 billion.

WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR MONEY GOING?

[right wing sheep chant in unison "pensions!" b/c that's their latest Talking Point...]

[no, it's not the pensions, though the GOP has been running the pensions and contract laws for the last 16 YEARS, so I'm sure they fucked us there too!]

Guest

pot-holes... he he he.

diablofreak

staten island is simply a island of NJ controlled by NYC as a garbage dump anyway.

if you choose to live in a dump, don't complain

xgeyiph772

Wow, what a cogent, intelligent posting to this article. Even though 500,000 of you live in a county of New York State (not NJ) that has been populated since the 1600s by hard-working residents, all of you should somehow move to...where? Brooklyn? Manhattan?

Of course, the garbage dump (now closed and being transformed into a world-class park) was good enough for all on NYC's trash for over 50 years, not to mention the remains of 1000s of persons killed on 9/11. But since those dregs of SI have the insouciance to expect car-killing potholes to be filled (as has been the case for years), they now should stop complaining and move. Why didn't we think of that years ago?

You're probably one of those persons who heard a SI joke on "Barney Miller" 30 years ago and has never been to "Staten Italy" (guess it's a crime to be Italian in NYC lately--you'd rather we be thugs from the Bronx who shoots people in Times Square on Easter Sunday?).

Ah well, my diatribe is complete. I'll take the ferry home now (very nice on the outer decks) to my $950/mo apt in a quiet, leafy n'hood quite near the ferry terminal and a few blocks from the Botanical Garden. Poor me :)

diablofreak

dude... lighten up?

i live in queens and it's a shithole.

i go to brooklyn and it's even shittier.

bronx, i wouldn't dare go unless I have to cross it to go up to CT or Westchester.

Manhattan, I hate everyone who lives on that island.

the whole NYC is a shit hole. I'm just saying SI is the shittiest of them all. It's a shit hole that I live in, but I don't complain about my living conditions, because it's a shithole (there will be pros and cons) no matter where you go.

To put things in perspective: Staten Island - No subway access, one bridge/highway from the rest of NYC (while 3 bridges from NJ!) and it's physically located closer to NJ than the rest of NYC. look up a map.

xgeyiph772

Man, it must REALLY suck to be you. Maybe some of us don't hate our lives so much we need to drag down a whole city with us. And fyi, I know how to read a map and, like most other Staten Islanders, realize that the island is closer to NJ than Manhattan. What that has to do with fixing some potholes is beyond me, but hey, enjoy your misery out in Queens, dude.

ed_Extinct

and by potholes do you mean white trash?

Papercutninja

not technically white....let me tell you the story of the Moors...

ed_Extinct

for the win!

VorneliusCanderbilt

I thought Staten Italy was all canals?

hotstepper

if you want to see potholes and 3rd world road conditions, visit Willets Point, all courtesy of bloomberg's attempts to use eminent domain.

Trilby16

Potholes, sure, but how many bookstores?

Kojak

Staten Island has roads?

cxb

NOTE that Gothamist above prints another PRO-BLOOMBERG LIE that was PROVEN to have been a lie (by people who ENDORSED Bloombag no less)!

The DoT only "fills" potholes as more wasteful smoke and mirrors. Even Seifman and the Post proved the DoT LIED to NYC and made the roads even worse.

FUN FACT:

the Daily News (who also endorsed tax hike mike) exposed that Bloombag broke THE LAW more than 27,000 times by allowing Verizon, Con Ed, and rich developers to CUT UP BRAND NEW ROADS for non-emergency purposes (which is illegal for 5 years).

DID YOU NOT KNOW that almost every pothole in NYC is manmade? Go out and look: they're all exactly where Con Ed, Verizon, and others just CUT INTO A FINE STREET, and then do a half-assed patch job b/c there is zero accountability under MIA Bloombag.

PEOPLE, this isn't a game. Many people have been INJURED b/c of potholes. It's not just cosmetic y'know.