The Hole

Some months ago a small hole opened up in the street out front. Not unusual. Up until now our street had been one of the smoothest in Chicago. Everybody on neighboring streets always bitch and complain about how bad their street is, like the one immediately to our east. Not only is that street horribly rough to drive down but the city added speed bumps. Improperly constructed speed bumps that rattle your bones no matter how slow you go over them. We have no speed bumps on our street, just smooth virgin pavement. Until that hole showed up. About two months ago the small hole caved in creating a much larger hole. It is now three feet wide and just as deep. If you look down into the hole you can see that it extends beyond the opening at the surface and spreads out under the pavement, leaving no support for the blacktop above. Naturally I called the city, twice. A police car showed up after each call. The cops got out of their car, stood there looking at the hole for a minute, and then drove away. I figured they would report back that yes, there was a dangerous hole in the middle of Fairfield Avenue and it would be fixed. It hasn't been fixed. A highway barricade was placed over it so nobody would drive into the hole. That barricade has been run over every day since it was placed there and the hole has got bigger. At this point everybody who lives on our street is aware of the hole and gingerly squeezes past the hole and the parked cars. It was even more difficult today because some idiot parked too far from the curb leaving barely enough room to get by. If the city doesn't fix that soon, it will be winter when the streets all start birthing holes of their own. At that point it will not be called a hole anymore, but instead be called a common pothole. Or a speed hole, to slow down the speeders.