El Cajon promises on potholes

On April 22 and 23, the El Cajon Facebook page challenged those living there to hop onto their "My El Cajon" app and "mark every pothole you can find within our city limits and have our crew get them fixed next week. We’re bulking up on crews and supplies to take on every pothole in the City of El Cajon."

I downloaded the app recently, and under the "Requests and Issues" tab, a variety of options popped up: Abandoned Vehicle Violations, Code Violations, Illegal Lodging, Graffiti, other options, and Streets. Clicking on the Streets tab opens up Sidewalk Repair, Streets (Other), and Pothole/Street Repair.

While few were supportive of the city's reach out, they corroborated that El Cajon kept to its word over the weekend. Most residents who responded underneath the "El Cajon’s POTHOLE CHALLENGE!" post doubted the City coming through; Monique Halgrims wondered if it was "a ploy to get more traffic for your app?"

A City of El Cajon employee quickly responded, "Yes! It’s a big government conspiracy secretly designed to give our residents a tool they’ve been asking to address their city requests in 48 hours or less by immediately directing such requests to the appropriate departments. You’re also welcome to leave your requests here on Facebook, but our social media teams don’t have many shovels in the office, so we’d strongly urge you to try the app!"

Another local, Elissa G., laughed at the pothole challenge and said in part, "What the heck does it matter? El Cajon should take care of it. Another shitty app that will not get anything done."

The City of El Cajon fired back, "Hi Elissa, it matters because we can’t spend El Cajon City taxpayers’ funds on non-El Cajon City roads. Our app has a great response time, with almost every request being completed in under 48 hours. The residents who use it have had amazing success."

Elissa called, "bullshit — no need to reply to me. You'll never change my mind. I have l[i]ved here too long."

Over the weekend, Michelle Metschel, an El Cajon Councilmember, posted photos of the challenge on her Facebook page. "We filled quite a few today," she said. "I tamped down a few spots. That tamper tool is kind of heavy for me, but I tried." Metschel posted a photo of city workers pointing out spots on a map with what appears to be 11 potholes which they were going to assess.

El Cajon has about 400 miles of street lanes, and pothole repair requests were five times higher this year than in previous years, East County Magazine reported before the weekend.

The city added, in a video, that water percolating through cracks in the roadway is the beginning of the formation of potholes. Add utility lines repairs in the perimeter, traffic, and East County's higher temperatures, and the gaps in the pavement enlarge. Then the water washes away the sub-base underneath the streets' asphalt, the pavement collapses, and a pothole is born.

In February, Victor V. warned his fellow El Cajon neighbors, "Be careful on the 8 west before the 125, near the construction zone; the very right lane that was under construction last week has a giant pothole, and I saw a few cars having tire problems. Azure A. corroborated: "We saw five cars all pulled over at the same time fixing issues with their tires at the exact location."

"Potholes can not only impact your tire rim, but they can damage your suspension," said Doug Shupe of the Auto Club of Southern California in a recent ABC 7 News story. "And on average, the cost of a pothole repair ... varies between $250 to more than $1,000."