BEST POTHOLE
3rd & Washington
How do you judge the best pothole? By its size? Its depth? By the damage it causes? ("Eighth & Bowdish: two flat tires," wrote in one person.)
However you do it, there are plenty to choose from in Spokane (a number of voters said as much, or words to that effect). Others simply wrote "Spokane." Yeah — thanks for the tip.
There are plenty of individual chuckholes that caught voters' attention: People cast numerous votes for holes on Third Avenue, on Sprague, Cedar, Lincoln and Northwest Boulevard. Indeed, voters named more than 100 separate holes. Sometimes voters found it hard to choose, naming two or even three.
"I love them all," wrote one resident. Some others: "Plenty to choose from." "City Council chambers on Spokane Falls Boulevard." "What potholes?"
There is a clear winner, though. The most notorious in the Lilac City is at Third and Washington. This crack of doom easily skulked away with the dubious title of most-hated, er, best pothole in the Inland Northwest. It's monster series of holes, an archipelago of crumbled blacktop that's big enough to bounce the sturdiest SUV. If the city's road workers target one place to patch soon, say The Inlander's enlightened voters, Third and Washington should be it.
"We've been in that area quite a bit," says Larry Neil, Spokane's street director. The problem, he says, is that the pavement there keeps developing ruts, then breaking open.
If a person has a pothole complaint, there is a hotline maintained by the city at 625-7733. Last year, says Neil, city workers patched 2,442 potholes, representing nearly 8,000 square yards. So far this year, between residents and workers, the city's taken more than 950 pothole reports, he says. "I'd say, it's probably an indication of what's happening out there."
2nd: "Too many to list"; 3rd: Spokane
