The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
We’ve catalogued the state of San Diego’s potholed streets and other infrastructure for more than a year now. Recently, Clear Channel radio’s “Community Connection” show had me on for a lengthy discussion on the current state of the city’s roads.
In the interview, I emphasized the three main points we’ve made in of our coverage:
• Streets and other infrastructure are still getting worse each year because the city doesn’t spend enough to keep pace with the rate of decay. With recent funding increases, deterioration is now estimated to be between 5 percent and 10 percent over the next five years.. If the city wanted to keep conditions as they are now, it would need to spend an additional $30 million on repairs next year, according to the Independent Budget Analyst.
• The repair spending the city is doing now relies significantly on borrowed money, which must be repaid with interest over time. The current plan, which again allows for continued deterioration, is to borrow $435 million over the next five years for repairs.
• The city has consistently overpromised and underperformed on road and other infrastructure repairs. Our in-depth piece on this issue catalogued many of the missed promises over the past few years. But even more recently, the city hasn’t yet followed through on pledges to increase transparency in the repair process.
You can listen to the whole interview here. The segment starts at the 15-minute mark.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the rate of infrastructure deterioration over the next five years. We regret the error.
Liam Dillon is a news reporter for Voice of San Diego. He covers San Diego City Hall, the 2012 mayor’s race and big building projects. What should he write about next?
Please contact him directly at liam.dillon@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5663.
Disclosure: Voice of San Diego members and supporters may be mentioned or have a stake in the stories we cover. For a complete list of our contributors, click here.
Like VOSD on Facebook.