Brookland Parkway in Richmond Virginia is a lovely tree-lined boulevard watched over by one and two-story brick homes of early postwar vintage. In the summer willow oaks shade the homes from the searing sun and crape myrtles blooming red, violet and white relieve eyes tired by the oppressive heat and humidity.
These days Brookland Parkway is more pockmarked than a teenager with the worst case of acne. As you can tell from the pictures, the potholes are large enough for school-age children to hide in. Cars, SUVs and trucks throw chunks of asphalt onto the median as heavy as a chunky toddler.
I've become something of a pothole aficionado these past few weeks. When a car or SUV fails to avoid these honkers outside our home, we hear a booming sound not unlike a big wave breaking on a jetty. But when a truck hits these potholes, the metal frame shudders. It sounds like the tailgate has fallen flat onto the road. Our potholes are our urban symphony's percussion section, tympani and cymbals rolled up into one.
You can blame it on the weather, but these potholes have been filled in a slapdash manner at least twice in the short year we've lived here. Brookland Parkway is no different than Interstate 64 which, as I wrote some time ago, looks like Iraqi insurgents have had their way with it.
"Why are our roads so bad?" I asked my civil engineer brother-in-law this morning, in town for a conference. "Lack of funding," he replied, and I believe him. North Carolina's climate is not appreciably harsher than Virginia's but the roads are a lot smoother. North Carolina's gas tax is also 31 centers per gallon, compared to Virginia's 19 cents.
The new Republican governor wants to build toll roads on I-85 and 95 at the North Carolina state line to raise money for highways. The Richmond Times-Dispatch calls this progressive thinking. I'd call getting non-Virginians to pay for the upkeep of Virginia roads clever, but not necessarily progressive. Are Virginians too good to maintain their own roads? I've heard it said that North Carolina is a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit, and I'm starting to believe it.
I'm not opposed to a toll road, but why not just raise the gas tax? You could raise more money sooner. You could phase in a 10 cent per gallon increase over a year, and nobody would notice because of the variability in gas prices.
"Because we can't raise taxes in a recession," they say. Well, why not raise some extra revenue and put people to work filling potholes? Don't they understand that a sound infrastructure is a cornerstone of any economic development policy?
The public will spend money on potholes, either filling them with their taxes, or by buying new tires prematurely and on costly and unnecessary re-alignment work. I vote for the former.
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