By A. Rodriguez
I have sent a picture of a beautiful cloudy day over an Arizona pond. Normally I would consider this a wonderful sight. The major problem is that there isn’t supposed to be a pond in this particular picture because it is actually a Pima County public street! This is the interaction of Colossal Cave Road and Dawn Street in Vail. I took this picture a couple of days after it rained, yet there was still about 12-18 inches of standing water that covers the entire road!
Let’s face it, our roads are terrible. It doesn’t matter what the government entity is, no one organization is better than the other. The county roads are terrible, the city roads are terrible, and the Arizona (ADOT) roads are terrible. I have driven on dirt roads in other parts of the country that are better than some of the paved roads in and around Vail and Tucson.
Year after year our politicians explain how road repair is a priority and year after year very little is done. We are all suffering the consequences of inaction and disagreements. Taxpayers state they want roads improved but vote down higher taxes to pay for them. Politicians make new proposals to pay for roads and then spend money on new soccer fields and space balloon launch sites. We seem to be in an awful cycle that we all can’t get out of.
Who is going to take the lead on this? Who is going to improve our quality of life? We are waiting for answers.
