By Eric Eisenberg
BRIGHTON – As traffic moved quickly on a recent Tuesday evening, a taxi sped down the portion of Commonwealth Avenue that runs through the neighborhood of Brighton with a stack of papers sitting in the front passenger seat. As the car went, audible sounds of the paper shifting and jumping could be heard in the back seat as the car went over numerous elevated tar patches and large potholes that shook the entire car. The driver, reaching over to reset the papers after each bump, grumbled in frustration as a large pothole caused the papers to fall into the passenger footwell.
“There are a lot of streets that have potholes,” said Wendy Juarez, a resident of Brighton who drives to work everyday. “A lot of them are in desperate need of repavement.”
Many Brighton residents are displeased by the conditions of their roads. Much of the damage can be attributed to weather and usage. Said Michael Hooper, a resident of Brighton whose street was left damaged by construction, some of the work is a result of street work left unfixed.
“[KeySpan Energy] did some work on my street and did some digging,” Hooper said. “They paved some of it over, but they never finished filling some of the holes.”
The poor conditions come after a winter wrought with frost, ice and heavy snowfalls, all of which contribute directly to deteriorating asphalt. Juarez said the Public Works Department did a good job. Others disapproved with the infrequency of plowing and, when it was performed, the care taken by the snow plow drivers.
“I think it was a disaster,” said Ashleigh McElrath, a resident of Brighton. “I think they didn’t plow them, and when they did plow they hit my car.”
The Boston Public Works Department was unavailable for comment through the press office.
The roads of Brighton are noticeably bumpier, cracked and, as Sean Walsh, a resident of Brighton who occasionally rents a car for transportation around the city said, “potholey” in comparison to other sections of Boston and neighboring towns such as Brookline and Newton.
“When you cross into Newton it’s completely different,” Hooper said.
Some residents, including Hooper and Walsh, see a link between the higher income areas of the city in relation to street maintenance.
“I think [the street conditions] are absolutely worse than other areas like Brookline, which of course is another town with a higher tax bracket,” Walsh said. “The South End is also much better.”
© Eric Eisenberg, All Rights Reserved