Arnold Schwarzenneger made headlines when he decided to stop his neighbors complaining about poor road conditions. In a video released to social media, Arnold was seen fixing a supposed pothole in the middle of a street. The only problem, Arnold mistakenly filled in a service trench instead of a pothole.
Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it. I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go. pic.twitter.com/aslhkUShvT
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) April 11, 2023
After filling the road imperfection, Arnold wrote:
“Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it. I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go.”
A Los Angeles City spokesperson spoke to NBC about the issue, indicating that while Arnold had good intentions, the “pothole” was meant to be in the road and was serving a purpose. She said:
“This location is not a pothole. It’s a service trench that relates to active, permitted work being performed at the location by SoCal Gas, who expects the work to be completed by the end of May.
“As is the case with similar projects impacting City streets, SoCal Gas will be required to repair the area once their work is completed.”
According to NBC, neighborhood residents made numerous complaints about the trench in the road but it was not fixed. It was also indicated by Daniel Ketchell on Twitter that the pipeline may not actually be scheduled for repair. The situation remains unclear on that end. Ketchell wrote:
It’s always important to take bureaucratic damage control with a grain of salt. First, they implied @schwarzenegger paved over active gas work that would finish at the end of May. Then, the truth came out: the gas work was done in January (and the timeline for paving sped up).
For those out of the loop on the initial story, Will from The American Tribune offered this summary of the video:
“The common counter to libertarian arguments is that if the government didn’t exist, no one would build the roads. Well, maybe the roads are built, but they’re poorly maintained in many areas and the government seems more likely to spend money on providing clean needles for heroin addicts than fixing the roads to make like easier for ordinary people. Such was exposed by Arnold Schwarzenegger having to “terminate” a pothole in his neighborhood himself after waiting weeks for the government to fix it and that not happening.”
Executive director and general manager of the Bureau of Street Services Keith Mozee told NBC news that the city had received 19,642 pothole repair requests since the end of last year. He said:
“Repairing potholes is a daily task for us. We’re making good progress, but it’s not good enough for anyone who’s been impacted by a pothole.”
Pothole Info ranks Los Angeles roads as being the most poorly maintained in the country, with 61% of the streets in the city being labeled “poor.” According to Pothole Info, one-third of all traffic fatalities in America are caused by poor road conditions.
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