Sinkhole Watch in Clairemont

Just after 5 p.m. on June 7, San Diego police officers arrived on the 4900 block of Acuna Drive, where a resident had discovered a sinkhole in front of her home's driveway.

Officers confirmed that it was not a pothole, but a sinkhole of indeterminable size. Ten to 12 feet from the curb, the asphalt had a basketball-sized indentation with a softball-sized hole near the center.

One of the officers shined his flashlight into the hole and said, "It's a hole." Before departing, the officer informed the resident, "City crews will be en route." A neighbor placed a few orange cones in the road to warn drivers.

At just after 7 a.m. on June 8 there was no sign of a city road crew, only the cones placed yesterday. Since last night, the hole has enlarged. The indentation is now the size of a round laundry basket. There seems to be a crack in the asphalt about six feet in circumference around the hole, which appears ready to collapse. Another crack travels 12 feet from the hole, up the blind uphill turn.

Jeremy, a resident on the block, said, "This could become another La Jolla." He said a city worker had come by last night and said, "We have a lot of potholes."

About 20 minutes after a call to the SDPD non-emergency line this morning, a two-officer car came on the scene. The officers confirmed it's more than a pothole and contemplated forcing a collapse of the unstable asphalt but then decided against the idea.

Climbing back into their cruiser, an officer said,  "Someone will be here to take care of this."

In the meantime, vehicles zip downhill (most at well over the posted 25 mph speed limit), past a hazard they cannot see.