The pothole that ate The Edgewater?

Well, it’s not quite a sinkhole, and—assuming the City finally gets around to filling it in—it probably doesn’t really have the potential to collapse The Edgewater, which is just across the street. But this pothole at the intersection of 42nd Avenue E. and E. McGilvra Street has certainly become a major pedestrian and bicycle hazard in recent months. Vehicle drivers also need to take caution when approaching the intersection, since the barricades the City has placed there are routinely knocked onto ground by passing trucks and busses, thereby adding to the accumulated danger of this particular depression.

The situation was brought to our attention a week ago or so by MPB reader Peter Davidson, who requested that we mention the problem and provide a link to a website, SeeClickFix, which has as its raison d’être bringing citizen concerns to the attention of government. In theory, according to Davidson, the more people who go to SeeClickFix to look at the page listing the 42nd and McGilvra issue, the quicker the City will be in fixing the pothole. Perhaps.

Or, more likely, the City will be fixing this pothole when it’s good and ready to. A recent article in The Seattle Times notes that at the end of last year the City had reports of 1,200 potholes that had yet to be investigated and repaired. Although the number of SDOT’s pothole-fixing crews has been increased from three to nine, our several-feet-wide, several-inches-deep pothole has yet to make it to the top of the repair list. But we may be moving up. Last week someone, presumably from the City, painted a bunch of incomprehensible markings on the street at the site.

So far, there have been 117 views of the relevant fix-this-pothole page on SeeClickFix. As a result of these views SeeClickFix notes that it has sent emails about the problem to “Seattle Times pothole reports” and to the “Department of Neighborhoods East District.” We hope that last one is not the office recently shut because of budget cuts.

[Thanks to The Laurelhurst Blog for bringing the pothole article in The Seattle Times to our attention. As the blog notes, the SDOT has an on-line form for reporting street problems, including potholes. To access it, click here. There is also a pothole and street repair hotline number listed there.]