Alley repair program underscores past neglect
This week the city’s ambitious alley repaving program kicks off.
We can thank former City Manager Katrina Powell for putting this together. For unknown reasons – dysfunction? – city officials in the past never got around to addressing the condition of our alleys.
The program this year is modest, but at least it’s a beginning – and long overdue. Our alleys are in deplorable condition. In some sections there isn’t much of a road – just crater after crater.
How this escaped the attention of city officials in the past is puzzling.
Our hope is that the city can find a way to expand the project in the coming years.
To the city’s credit, and again thanks to Powell, city officials have ramped up street repairs and repaving in recent years. If the city truly has a $5 million budget surplus, a good use for that money would be to increase the number of street repairs.
Our streets, like our alleys, have long been neglected.
Now that colder weather is approaching, we would like to see city councilmembers form a committee and tackle this issue. Hamtramck is still under the supervision of state officials because of our financial situation.
This is a unique opportunity to take advantage of our financial constraints and use that as leverage to win some state and federal grants. In the past few years we have indeed taken advantage of our financial situation.
We need to keep moving forward while we have this unique opportunity.
3 Responses to Alley repair program underscores past neglect
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Uncle Cooter
September 17, 2017 at 3:26 pm
In addition to alley repairs, kudos to Councilman Ian Perrotta who has cited sanitation problems that are a direct result of Bengali and Yemeni immigrants lacking the skills to dispose of their refuse. These statements were made in a recent WWJ interview that has received press coverage.
A recent Yemeni-American City Council candidate, Ali Alkhemi, has given partial support to Ian’s claims.
I will support Ian Perrotta in the November general election due to his honesty and courage in attributing sanitation problems to the proper groups.
Ian also spoke in the radio interview of educating these immigrants on how to be good neighbors and citizens in the city. This is another step in the right direction.
I support the ticketing of residents and business owners by police and city inspectors who do not follow the laws. Too often recent immigrants do not have the sophistication to learn and adhere to the rule of municipal ordinances.
I support Ian Perrotta, Karen Majewski and Andrea Karpinski in their re-election bids and also in their efforts to keep the city clean.
Uncle Abdul
September 18, 2017 at 11:53 am
In well-run cities like Dearborn, Warren and others city officials don’t blame recent immigrants for their problems because they know how to do their job well.
Blaming recent immigrants is a very easy escape route to cover their failures.
Neighbor
September 19, 2017 at 1:39 pm
Right in front of Cathy Gordon’s bar there is a parked van, God knows for how long, with overgrown shrubs around it. & that’s on Jos Campau, our main street.
Is she a recent immigrant?