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A few months ago I was talking to some well educated NOLA residents about the potholes and they told me that “all major cites have streets like New Orleans.”

I laughed and said, “No” and they got all bent out of shape that I was ragging on New Orleans.

Oh, other cities get potholes just as bad as those in New Orleans. The difference is, they actually FIX them. In the Dallas area, they actually send crews out in the Spring and Summer to examine streets for new cracks. If they find a crack, the use something that looks like an enormous Dremel tool to grind and widen the crack, then they pump it full of sealer to prevent freeze damage in the coming cold months. Preventive roadway maintenance - I doubt that the idea has ever been discussed in New Orleans.

Did they ever repair that huge pothole / meteor crater on St. Charles avenue, just upriver of the universities on the riverbend-bound side? Seems like it was there for at least two years following Katrina - they just kept dumping clam shells in it.

One thing about Nola is that the ground is always sinking. I'm sure you all know this. There is no excuse for not fixing the pot holes but what works in Dallas may not work here. Having said that you would think that over the years there would have been a system to repair the streets developed that is unique to the problems Nola experiences.

Oh, I would hit that one heading from my house to eat at Camilla Grill or Cooter Brown’s. It was still shells the last time I was there.

In 2007 there was a traffic signal on General De Gaulle that was flashing red for three months. The city floated the story that that one traffic signal needed one special part in order to operate and it would take six weeks for the part to arrive.

People in NOLA bought that story.

I am from NOLA and spend 4-5 months a year in the city. I love NOLA but the place in more dysfunctional than half of the third world cites I have been to...