I invite Mayor Emily Larson, Chief Administrative Officer Noah Schuchman and Public Works and Utilities Director Jim Benning to take an eight-block drive with me. We'll start at the intersection of Hawthorne Avenue and East Fourth Street and head east toward the 34th Avenue East intersection. They'll want to leave their cups of coffee at home unless they want to scald themselves with second-degree burns. Is this a road we're on?" we'll ask. I have been on logging roads that were considerably smoother.
We could then continue our tour farther east where Fourth Street turns into Old Howard Mill Road, but frankly it's not worth it unless we want to knock the alignment right out of the car.
Let's go down 34th Avenue East instead. My companions would be in for a real treat here because as Superior Street approaches, the road has a rollercoaster effect that causes motorists and passengers to hit their head on the ceiling of the car every 25 feet or so. No admission!
Are these road conditions due to our recent winter? I'm sure it didn't help, but any resident can tell you the stretch of road I just described has been this way far longer than one winter.
The March 15 News Tribune story, "City lays out pothole plans," mentioned something called "cold patch" as a first fix for potholes. I'm no expert, but if cold patching refers to throwing a couple shovels of blacktop into a pothole with standing water, as I've seen city employees do, relying then on resident commuters to pack it down, I don't think it'll work.
ADVERTISEMENT
Many of Duluth's streets border on embarrassing. Isn't it time the residents of Duluth deserved better?
Todd Wentworth
Duluth
