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That sinking feeling in City Politics
Here’s a quick Toodleydoo riddle.
When does orange barrel season begin and end? From the last freeze ‘til the snow flies? From the time the oil moves in the backhoe ‘til the asphalt plants shutter?
Wrong!
Wander around these swampy environs and you’ll see the Sisyphean answer. It never, ever never ends. Never.
Rock and a hard place
You know the dystopian tale of Sisyphus, right? The doomed chap fated to push the same rock up the same hill every day, only to have it roll back down for him to start all over again?
So it goes with the aged, ill-fated Toledo sewer system.
Remember the car-swallowing sinkhole that opened a chasm at Detroit and Bancroft several years ago? The photo of the little old lady climbing out on a ladder?
A mere portent of things to come.
In older neighborhoods like downtown, the East Side, and the Old West End, sinkholes are a way of life. Driving is a crap shoot, a gamble that your car won’t end up at the bottom of another Toledo sewer canyon.
Meanwhile dodging the orange barrels that are placed to wall off the latest collapse is a daily slalom course, as the yawning maws of doom widen and swallow the barrels and any small pets nearby.
Which brings us to the poster child of sewer collapses in the present day. A sordid tale of doomed streets, endless orange barrels, the fetid stink of sewer gas, a rising multimillion dollar repair cost, and the ceaseless and dangerous disruption of daily life. That would be Arlington Avenue.
Money pit
It all began back in September of twenty twenty four. Residents reported numerous sinkholes after a storm. The City blocked half the street, then the whole shebang, and tried to repair a collapsed sewer and fill the holes.
The Sisyphean rock just rolled back down as the holes kept reappearing. In May twenty twenty five the sewer line finally gave up the ghost. What was expected to be a repair turned into a full scale replacement. Phase One is expected to be completed later this year, to the tune of a cool eight million dollars. In the meantime residents complain of escaping sewer stink and endless detours.
And the rock keeps rolling. Phase Two of the sewer replacement and affiliated road reconstruction will keep the barrels in place for years to come. Phase Two is expected to cost another sixteen million ducats.
City leaders keep finding millions for the project, while average families suffer the endless impacts. How about a little sumpin’ sumpin’ for the effort?
Will residents see any compensation for the stink and the headaches? This raises a larger issue. We get that emergencies like this are an unfortunate part of living and doing business in a city with aging infrastructure. The swamp giveth and the swamp taketh away.
Construction estimates always factor in extra costs for overruns and enhancements. How about adding a smidge for the folks and businesses impacted?
To Wade and City Council: Fix the damn streets. But take into account the average Joes and Jolenes who bear the brunt of the Sisyphean rock. Put in place a fund to compensate the loss of business to affected commercial interests and the aggravation foisted on adjacent residents.
Now that would be a policy worth its weight in limestone.
