Reader: Denver Potholes — Enough Is Enough!

Last week marked the start of street-paving season in Denver, and as the recent snow disappeared from our streets, it revealed several unwanted spring surprises: potholes. The sorry condition of the city's roads inspired reader Chris Hoover to share  this:

Potholes: Enough Is Enough

Let's see, where shall I begin? I could mention the gaping pothole that destroyed the aluminum wheel on my car a few months ago, and almost caused me to swerve into oncoming traffic. I could mention the two tires my friend just blew out and destroyed on her car a week ago due to another huge pothole. I could mention the fact that you cannot drive through one single city block in Denver (or the surrounding suburbs) without feeling like you are driving in a third-world country (I have lived in several) or on a 4 x 4 trail.

Last month I was driving down I-70 eastbound, almost to the interchange of I-25 and I-70, when I was amazed to see a half-mile of orange “construction cones” blocking traffic to the off-ramp for that complete half-mile — with a crew of several guys and two trucks that were clearly off the road, fixing a dented guardrail. That's right: Our hard-earned tax money was being spent on positioning cones on the un-safe “wagon trail road” to make it look like they were actually working on fixing something substantial, when the reality is they were fixing a dented guard rail.  Common sense would tell you that they would make the roads safe to drive on before they worried about the aesthetics of our highways.

I have written to our governor and our mayor more then once in the past six months in regards to the unsafe driving conditions, and of course I have not gotten a reply.  The facts I am trying to expose here are these:  Our roads are unsafe to drive on; they are costing every taxpayer in tire, struts, shock repairs. City/state officials are not above the law; they fund new police cars, radar guns, spy cameras at every other intersection in Denver — but they obviously are not allocating our tax money appropriately.

These roads have been getting progressively worse over the past ten years. Now they are on the fringe of disaster. I am calling out to any other taxpayers who feel this way, to stand up and say: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Let's demand transparency, let's find out where our hard-earned money is going. And last but not least: Let's demand a tax exemption per car per household until our roads are safe to drive on again.

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