Potholes, specifically on Sixth Street, were the first concern Anne Ross had Monday night as she wondered if resurfacing the road was on the city’s agenda.
And she was not alone.
Ross was among roughly 50 residents attending the Ward 4 Southside Meeting held at Columbus City Hall Monday night, a platform for residents to raise concerns about the neighborhood. Attendees voiced their concerns with the area’s appearance and safety, starting with unfixed potholes, to a line of city officials present — including Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard, Mayor Robert Smith and several city department heads.
The meeting was prompted by a shooting at Sixth Street and Fifth Avenue South earlier this year and armed robberies in the neighborhood, said Southside resident Julie Parker, one of the organizers of the gathering.
Southside resident Megan Westby, who helped organize the meeting, said she took pictures of broken roads and sidewalks along Sixth Street as well as beside the Mississippi University for Women campus. Road conditions worsen particularly when there’s a large volume of traffic passing through, she said.
“(The roads are) in pretty rough shape,” Westby said, “especially with so much traffic flow with the students and the upcoming Pilgrimage,” an event that includes antebellum home tours put on by the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau each spring.
The city conducts road work following a list of priority streets in need of repairs based on the volume of traffic and the last time of repavement, Smith said.
To report problems with potholes as well as other issues, residents can upload photos of the problems to the city’s online reporting system SeeClickFix, said city spokesperson Joe Dillon. Announced in November, the system pinpoints issues and helps the city send crews to the location to troubleshoot.
However, Westby said, her experience with the application was not always pleasant. The problems were immediately passed on to city departments, she said, but “nine times out of ten, (the process) stops there.”
Westby said she first reported a pothole on Gardner Boulevard in November, but it was never fixed. The pothole has now developed into a sinkhole during the weekend, which caused the city to close the street Monday afternoon until Saturday, according to Dillon in an email.
“It is dangerous,” Westby said. “Someone’s entire leg could go through that hole.”
Another Southside resident also reported a pothole, only to discover that the problem had been labeled online as completed before it was fixed, she said.
“‘Your request has been closed. Thank you for making Columbus a great place to live and work,'” Westby read aloud the response the resident received from the app. “The person … immediately said, ‘The pothole has not been fixed. I actually hit it twice today.'”
Dillon said some reports did not include specific information of the issue, which makes repairs harder. Some patched-up potholes also redeveloped after heavy rainfall, he said.
Until late January, Dillon said, the application had been receiving requests electronically and sending instructions to crews on paper. The disadvantage of that, he said, was that the workers could not determine whether they were fixing the right problem based solely on the location and a vague description. The system now allows foremen to compare the uploaded photos to the actual site, which helps them better make targeted repairs, he said.
The other reporting system designed for those who don’t have internet access, Dillon said, is the city’s action center, which operates from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
But several residents said they were frustrated that nobody would answer the phone when they called.
“I’ve probably called 10 times, but only one time have I talked to a person,” Southside resident Eulalie Davis told The Dispatch. “If I leave a message about debris in front of my house, they do come and pick it up. But if I leave a message just about a situation in town, it’s not addressed.”
Also frustrated by a lack of communication was Kavi Nambisan, a doctoral student at Mississippi State University. The road in front of her house near MUW has been closed for construction without notice several times, she said, forcing her and her partner to park their cars blocks away in a poorly-lit area.
“There were no door hangers, nothing,” Nambisan said. “Several times they were working through the night outside our house, which affected our sleep and agitated our animals quite a bit.”
Dillon said the construction may have been a Columbus Light and Water project. The city usually tries to give a 48-hour notice beforehand, he said, unless it shuts down traffic because of emergency concerns.
Resident George Hazard said the streets are an indicator of how much work the city has put into improving the neighborhoods.
“When the streets are in good repair, it suggests efficiency and care, and that boosts the spirit of the town.” Hazard said, “Conversely, when the streets look bad and you are darting around the potholes, it makes you feel that the city government is not working.”
Conflict disclosure: Managing Editor Zack Plair took part in editing this article. He is currently involved in legal proceedings with the city of Columbus.
Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Southside resident Megan Westby asks city officials what can be done to address concerns about unfixed potholes in the neighborhood Monday night. Westby was one of those who spearheaded the meeting for Ward 4 Southside residents to discuss solutions to problems in the neighborhood. Photo by: Yue Stella Yu/Dispatch Staff
