Oakland is making progress filling potholes, but injury lawsuits keep piling up

OAKLAND Complaining about potholes is a time-honored tradition in a city notorious for its road defects but a new research has exposed particular encouraging signs that Oakland s leaders are taking the concern seriously Related Articles East Bay official wants new Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Cupertino interchange project moves forward with Apple funding boost What s with the endless construction ripping up Uptown Oakland s streets Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park campground to remain closed until season Richmond fined for sewage water releases into San Francisco Bay Figures compiled by the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury indicate the city filled as countless potholes around over an -month span through January as it repaired between and Still in annual reports distributed this week the grand jury located certain flaws in how Oakland approaches those pesky roadway crevices that deepen and widen whenever rainstorms pound the asphalt The -person civilian body which convenes yearly to investigate local inhabitants agencies called on the city to fully staff its transportation department and to audit how the money from two voter-approved bonds for road improvements is being spent Unmaintained roads present enormous liabilities leading the city to pay out hefty legal settlements to individuals claiming they were left injured sometimes in gnarly fashion from bad run-ins with potholes Because the city of Oakland failed to repave its roads for decades its streets have been in poor condition for a long time the new overview states Not only are potholes and other pavement failures a nuisance to drivers but they effect in carriage damage and pose a hazard A cyclist passes a large pothole on Park Boulevard between Highway and St James Drive in Oakland Calif on Thursday March The city has communicated they re doing a pothole blitz to repair countless of the city's cratered roads Jane Tyska Bay Area News Group The number of legal alleges filed against the city for bicycle repairs rose to in the - fiscal year up from the year before The city fielded such asserts in - Court documents paint a stark picture of these widespread statements of road dangers which appear to stretch across various parts of Oakland Specific of the lawsuits note the city repaired the potholes accused of causing injuries a relatively encouraging sign in Oakland where three previous mayors have launched pothole blitzes or all-out repaving efforts A woman last year commented she fell forward into the handlebars of her bicycle after the front wheel struck a pothole in North Oakland landing her in the hospital for several days with a severely torn liver Earlier this week the pothole at nd and Genoa streets appeared to have been paved Last November another woman biked over a series of potholes in the Oakland hills causing her to ram into the back of a parked wagon The city identified the pothole at Broadway Terrace as fixed the following month A pothole similarly appeared to have been filled at Montclair Avenue where another woman last June explained she suffered a head injury from a bicycle accident there That road cavity in the Cleveland Heights neighborhood east of Lake Merritt had been released three previous times to city staff illuminating how much danger a pothole can pose before it is ultimately repaired A car drives past a pothole at the intersection of East th Street and th Avenue in Oakland Calif on Wednesday Jan Ray Chavez Bay Area News Group When the road gets repaired so fleetly after an injury the optics there are pretty bad reported attorney Kyle Smith whose Lafayette-based firm Paceline represents bike people per its website Sometimes it feels like we re waiting for someone to die before we do anything Smith is representing three clients who have filed lawsuits against the city of Oakland including the one at nd and Genoa He commented the road defect there previously appeared online in a local bicycle coalition s list of bad potholes in the area Oakland the civil grand jury notes has self-insured since for up to million per event often finding itself on the hook for hefty payouts In the - fiscal year the city paid million to settle two catastrophic bike accident cases The city does not fix potholes with money from its general purposes fund which otherwise pays for the majority worker salaries and daily operations Instead it relies heavily on voter-approved bonds such as Measure KK and Measure U which passed in and respectively to fund its road maintenance In its description the jury dings the city for not having more oversight for how the money from these bonds is used Jurors pointed out that the city did not sell any Measure U bonds in as a product of its well-known financial struggles which have led multiple agencies to lower Oakland s credit rating The grand jury which in rare fashion focused all of its countywide reports this year on Oakland argued in another record that the city won t be able to sell bonds until its financial situation improves an assertion that has been the subject of fierce debate within City Hall Unless the City Council takes urgent and drastic action to address the structural deficit Oakland not only will not be able to sell bonds any time soon but could face the much larger trouble of insolvency the jury declared Ironically the City Council balanced a million budget deficit this month by drawing million from the fund that insures the city against liabilities a move that helped prevent layoffs this year but likely delayed more painful cuts that may prove inevitable down the line On the pothole front at least the grand jury concedes Oakland has made progress But it warns that the city s financial issues might mean good isn t good enough The current overall conditions of Oakland s streets are untenable the jury writes Without widespread repaving Oakland s streets will continue to deteriorate Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland Call or text him at - - or email him at shomik bayareanewsgroup com