Fixing Potholes

I read a great Milwaukee Record article titled Mandatory Milwaukee: Potholes! and learned about the MKE Mobile Action app which allows you to submit a pothole to the city! So of course that’s what I did…

I walked down to Lisbon Avenue which is about a block from my house, and a road I drive on every day, and snapped a photo of the first pothole I came across. Tap, Tap, Tap… Submitted!

And hey, I can use the app to check the status of the submission, or this URL to publicstuff.com. I submitted it this morning and when I checked on it this afternoon it was marked as received.

According to Milwaukee Record this is what the Department of Public Works (DPW) has to say:

“We currently have four crews city-wide working on potholes. That number will increase to six in March. That is the time of year we see the most potholes because of thawing. Yesterday [Monday, January 29], we received 48 pothole requests and we are basically caught up with requests. Our current response time is 1-3 days. In the cold months we use cold patch. Once about April hits, we have hot mix available which is more flexible and stronger.”

I’m excited to see when it gets resolved, which is why I am posting this now. There’s this thing where it’s really easy to complain about something, but it might take actual work to do something about it. This seems like a pretty easy thing to do to improve the city… if it works.

Check this out… you can view the map and see other issues submitted. I feel like if you got your neighbors together and all submitted the same issue (like potholes on your street) they might even get dealt with quicker… who knows?

The mobile app (and web site) does have all sorts of other city services you can request or check on, so if you live in Milwaukee (or a city that has this app) install it and give it a try. I figure the worse thing is you might waste a bit of time setting up an account and submitting an issue, but hey… I still have some hope left in this world!

Update: Holy Wow it’s fixed! On the same day… But wait!

I drove home around 5:15pm and noticed the street, and it looked like it was filled in. It was. I walked over to get a photo of it and on the way home ran into some neighbors. I told them I submitted it this morning and my neighbor said she saw a crew out there around 10am. That is 3 hours after I submitted it. Yeah, this works. Go at it, people!