If low taxes are so great...Why does my street look like this?

[Mongoose]

I live in a small conservative town that is about as Texas Conservative that a community can get. I`m not bashing conservativism, but I`m surrounded by many that pay A LOT of lipservice on the fact that "Liberals" have destroyed other places.... Like say Detroit, through high taxes and how Texas being a low tax state is a great thing. If my local street cant even be maintained at all... How is that a great situation?

Here is the situation. My street ( a city maintained street ) was last chip sealed in 1996 -- Yes almost 20 years ago, and the last full repave was in 1978... Almost 4 decades ago. The pot holes eventually do get filled. The keyword there being eventually, but as one can see from the photos, it`s waaaaaaaaaaaay beyond time for repavement.

Ive tried talking to both cities in which this road is a part of, and both have no interest whatsoever in the situation. Both are quick to blame the State of Texas for not providing sufficient money to even consider the project.

I`ve been to Detroit, and the streets that actually have houses on them are not in this bad of shape. That`s with those streets going through some rather significant freeze-thaw cycles year in and year out.

The house I used to own in Richardson while the street wasnt perfect... It was at least maintained to avoid the problems you see here.

[Denny]

That looks like shit work from the get go. It doesn't take a shitload of money to have nice streets. When you have the right people in charge of public funding, the projects tend to yield better results. Your street just got the cheapest bid, not to mention the cheapest labor on the O&M side. Shotty patchwork to boot.

Move out of the ghetto or run for a municipal council position.

[Mongoose]

That looks like shit work from the get go. It doesn't take a shitload of money to have nice streets. When you have the right people in charge of public funding, the projects tend to yield better results. Your street just got the cheapest bid, not to mention the cheapest labor on the O&M side. Shotty patchwork to boot.

Move out of the ghetto or run for a municipal council position.

It was last paved in 1978, and desite the amount of time there the road is still in somewhat level condition. Last Chip seal was in `96. The problem is NO work has been done on it since, and both places responsible for it just want to ignore it.

PS... It`s not the ghetto either

[John -- '02 HAWK]

because rick perry was in bed with the construction firms building toll roads and wasnt passing any infrastructure spending.

So keep that in mind when he declares his presidential run in the next couple of months

[DamonH]

My Dad is a County Commissioner, and there are probably multiple issues at hand. If your county is on the 4 precent system, it could be your commissioner isn't fighting hard enough to have what money they do have used on your street. If multiple commissioners get together they could outvote your commissioner on which roads get fixed even if he/she is trying hard. The road and bridge manager could really suck and have no idea what he's doing - often a problem in smaller towns. It also IS directly tied to taxes and this is what you get when you cut taxes to a point that there just isn't enough money to fix all the roads - it's not alway due to "wasteful spending".

My advice would be to speak to the county commissioner for your precent. It sounds like you may have done that, the next step is to keep bothering him. Get your like minded neighbors together, and go to the commissioners court meeting and be a squeaky wheel. It unfortunately takes that to get things fixed sometimes.

Good luck!

[Gasser64]

Its a small conservative town? Where exactly do you think this money is going to come from? You can't get blood out of a turnip. Also you went to the wrong part of detroit, the forest has literally reclaimed some parts of some areas at this point. Google for pics and proof

I'm quite familiar with those types of towns, I've always lived in them until recently. The people there don't have the money for your uber taxes, history has proven that people will move out and go somewhere where they get to keep their money and thus live in a manner which is much more conducive to their happiness. Some of them would beg my dad to get to keep $20 so they could eat. (he was a landlord for many years) Taxes in general need to be cut across the board, for the entire country. By about 75%. They waste more money that most nations have altogether.

In typical liberal fashion, you're going about it all the wrong way. How is pumping more money into a system that already fails you, going to help get your road fixed? If they're not going to do it now, as Denny said, what makes you think they'll decide to do it once they have more money? Maybe they decide they'd much rather have a new football field, and leave your shitty road completely out of the picture. Your efforts would be much better put to use, getting your neighbors in on it and making your officials repave the road. Then you'd have a repaved road, and the low taxes.

[KBScobravert]

Post up the city and street.

[turboford]

Post up the city and street.

no kidding. don't hide

[helosailor]

Too bad it's not in the ghetto, you could tell your story to the local news and it would be fixed in a week.
It wouldn't surprise me if this was Richland Hills. They seem to have no interest in street maintenance. At least 1/4 of the streets are not very friendly to anything that isn't a truck.

[LANTIRN]

My cousin had a similar problem in their small town a while back. In fact the city came though, tore up the street for water main or sewage work, and repaved it in the shittiest way I had seen in a long time. The whole neighborhood got together and started hitting up city offices non stop and attending every city council meeting possible. Every government function several residents were there to bitch and the city finally got so tired of hearing about it they fixed it right. I think it took them over 6 months of constant complaints but it worked. Call a neighborhood meeting and get a plan together.

[Forever_frost]

So you think handing over more taxes will get anything done when you admit that they aren't using the taxes being paid to fix the roads that are there? That makes zero sense. If it's bothering you so much, you can do what I just did this past week. Go get stuff and patch what you feel is bothering you the most. I brought in 2 yards of rock to fix potholes that were annoying me. Know what I didn't do? Bitch that everyone needs to pay more because I'm too lazy to fix the fucking road I drive on.

[Gasser64]

So you think handing over more taxes will get anything done when you admit that they aren't using the taxes being paid to fix <insert anything here> That makes zero sense.

Libbie mantra

[David]

This is damn near every street in Denton and most of its filled with liberal fucktards. Problem is every politician is a lazy mother fucker and sell out at best.

[Craizie]

This is damn near every street in Denton and most of its filled with liberal fucktards. Problem is every politician is a lazy mother fucker and sell out at best.

How do I apply for this job? That sounds perfect for me.

[Ruffdaddy]

How many people use that road...and how much would the repair cost?