AN UNHOLY RACKET
You can move away from a pothole problem.
But, like a sanskara, it is always waiting, ready to pounce.



You may recall that there was a massive pothole in front of my old apartment last year.

It was so big it became an installation, an obsession and a political statement - and eventually made it into John Kass's column in the Chicago Tribune.

You can read all about it here.

The city eventually covered the pothole with a giant metal plate - which as of yesterday is still there.




* * *


A few months ago, a small but very deep pothole appeared right in front of the new apartment.





Beneath the pothole was a huge hollow area that was far wider than its narrow, visible diameter.



The pothole stayed the same for a couple of months, never getting bigger.

And no one stuck anything in it.

Because, you see, it wasn't a menace.

Then, last Friday, there was a lot of noise in front of the building. It sounded like workers doing something.

Later, there were loud metallic thump-THUMP noises at irregular intervals.

They kept going on all evening.

They were LOUD.

Thump-THUMP. Thump-THUMP

Finally, I went out to investigate.

It seems that the workers had placed a giant metal plate over the pothole.



But they didn't nail it down.

So every time a car went over - which was often - it made a thump-THUMP noise that reverberated throughout the apartment building.

The sound went on all weekend. All day. And all night.

Thump-THUMP. Thump-THUMP.

On Saturday I called Dreyfus, and he could hear it over the phone - even though I was inside the apartment, with the window closed.

(It didn't bother me too much at night because I sleep with earplugs. Because loud neighbors can also follow you).

On Sunday I noticed that someone had placed wood shims under the plate, so that it wouldn't make as much noise.

And today I noticed this cryptic stuff...


...which is never a good sign.


Yet it did nothing to stifle the sound.

Thump-THUMP. Thump-THUMP!

(If only it went Ba-DUM-dum instead.

Now that would be funny).

THE POTHOLE MADE PAGE TWO OF TODAY'S CHICAGO TRIBUNE!*



It accompanies John Kass's column, about Mayor Daley and the 2016 Olympics.




Sadly (or fortunately) there is no attribution.

And even more sad - the photo does not appear in the online edition (which, on the other hand, is proof positive that print is still relevant).



For the record, the sign is the handiwork of a group calling itself the Latex Gals.











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And here are the latest additions to the installation -
a large orange pylon.....




....and can of Sprite.






I can't wait til it gets its own TV show....





Click below to follow the evolution of the pothole installation since it was discovered in mid-July:
Pothole Part I
Pothole Part II
Pothole Part III
Pothole Part IV







































*A big thank you to Maybelline for the head's-up!

POTHOLE UPDATE




I called Dreyfus on the way home from the airport last week.

He was not all that interested in my trip.

"Look at the pothole when you get home," he said. "Tell me what's going on!"

First, the bad news.

While I was gone, the pothole was covered up with a gigantic steel plate - a pretty lazy and anticlimactic solution, if you ask me.









The good news: they left behind the sign and the debris that filled the hole. It's right there on the curb, where people can still enjoy it.














Even better news: The Latex Gals (the women behind the pothole sign and its notoriety) are hard at work on their next project - another interactive urban installation.

It's called Ill. Wishes, and it combines street art, biting humor and traditional Asian religious customs to comment on the many (seven) indicted / convicted governors of Illinois. Audience participation in the project is not just encouraged - it's required. Ill Wishes will be on display in ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevic's former office October 3 and 4 as part The Blago Project at the Ravenswood Art Walk.

In other words, it will be on display in the very same office where the Guv was wiretapped.

It's an effing golden opportunity to put in your two cents about the sad state of affairs in Illinois.

Please come....

THE NEIGHBORHOOD INSTALLATION (i.e.; POTHOLE UPDATE)*



In 4-H we had a motto - "To make the best better."

That seems to be what's happening to the pothole sign.

One week later, it's still there - with some additions by local residents.

Someone put an impressive mudflap in front of the pylon. (One can't help but wonder what they'll do when winter comes: What will they use to save their parking space?).

If you look closely at the lefthand side, you can see other signs of subversion.








It almost makes me not want to move.

Almost.



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*The pothole itself is still there, too. While hanging out near the sign last night, Bo and I learned from a local activist that some 30 local residents had called the alderman - not the city's 311 number, but the actual office of 50th ward alderman Bernie Stone - to complain about the pothole. Thirty. And still nothing. She loooooved the sign.

OH, THE IRONY
Saw that coming....



There's been so much traffic that the metal plate has shifted to the point where it is no longer covering the pothole.

Oops!

Some cars end up hitting both the metal plate *and* getting a tire stuck in the pothole.

Some cars make a severe swerve around both.

At least it's at a jaunty angle...




Upon closer examination, it seems the pothole is indeed the tip of the iceberg, with a sinkhole below - as Dreyfus predicted.






You can see that it's already receding further, and will soon become a massive hole, capable of swallowing whole Halloween Trick-or Treaters.


In the meantime, it's a convenient place to store leaves.

POTHOLE AND LOCAL NEWS UPDATE



Someone returned the sign to the pothole!

Dirty and crumped, it's a bit worse for the wear; perhaps it had been stuffed into the hole itself.

There are other changes as well....




....Like an oil slick around the hole, as well as some spray-painted writing.




(Does anyone know what "DIE TEST" means? Or "BAB CLR"?)






Dorian Black thinks the new lines and words mean that it's not just a pothole anymore - it's a sink-hole. In other words, there's a much bigger hole below the pavement.

He also thinks they're going to have to shut down the whole street to fix it.

If they fix it.



* * *




IN OTHER NEWS



The Chicago Reader has been sold to a New York-based hedge fund by by its bankrupt parent company, Creative Loafing, Inc. (which purchased the paper a couple of years ago and promptly drove it into the ground. Even the website sucks now). Read more here.

POTHOLE UPDATE






It seems that the city does not plan to repair the pothole anytime soon.

Too busy with other things, I guess.

But not the locals.

By Saturday, someone had added a traffic pylon and another big piece of wood to the mix.





And by Saturday night, it looked like this:

HOW DEEP IS YOUR HOLE?




Although the latest "This Pothole Supports the 2016 Olympic Bid" sign disappeared shortly after last week's Indian Independence Day Parade, people are still adding things to the beloved West Ridge Pothole Installation.

No one has bothered to fix it.

Yet someone *has* taken the time to remove the clip of its recent newspaper appearance from the pylon.

Meanwhile, Dreyfus has been clamoring to know just how deep the hole is.

About 14 inches, I'd say.

And growing.

GONE!

The sign has disappeared.






Whoever did it had to work hard to remove all of the tape attaching it to its stick, which is still there.

Or perhaps the pothole simply stopped supporting the Olympics. Maybe it couldn't handle the fame.

Of course it is still there.




This has not caused the residents to stop contributing to the installation, which seems to be expanding.



They've also been trying to fill the hole, using whatever materials are on hand (so far I've not seen any children in there).





And *someone* has taped a copy of the Tribune photo to the pylon, in memory of the wonderful sign.

BA-DUM-DUM!
See and Hear the Famous Pothole "Repair"

THE EXTREMELY LOCAL NEWS: STREETS AND SAN



Last week a tire appeared in the middle of the street.

Everyone drove around it.

I waited to see how long it would be there, until someone moved it.

Three days passed.

Still it was there.

So I went to take a picture of it.

Suddenly, a man popped his head out of the window of the nearby apartment building and yelled, "I called the city about that hole three days ago, and they still haven't come. Can you believe it?"

I looked up at him.

And then I looked more closely at the tire.

It was covering a huge, deep hole.

Oops.

So on the way to class I called the city, to remind them about the pothole.

They said they'd put it at the top of the list.



The next day the tire was in a vertical position.

Two days later it was on its side again, with a two-by-four sticking out the top.




One week later, the hole is still there.

So is the tire.

And the City That Works is still trying to lure the 2016 Olympics here.






* * *




Earlier this week, they started tearing up Peterson Avenue... even though the fast, four-lane Peterson was in pretty good shape, apart from a few (filled) potholes.







So I wondered, Why are they doing this?

Then I noticed the orange sign.



Stimulus money.




* * *




How cool is it that Wilco is on the back of CTA buses?



It's almost as amusing as the fine print on this:








* * *





Last week the city came and took down a tree across the street.

This week another crew returned with this oddly-named machine,




which did away with the stump.

As if Johannes Vermeer would have wanted it that way.







* * *





I just realized that the song the ice cream truck plays when it goes by several times each day is....

the Conferate anthem "Dixie."

Such a unexpected thing to hear, in such an integrated neighborhood.