Arnold Schwarzenegger took matters into his own hands and repaired a pothole in his Los Angeles neighborhood, after waiting weeks for the city to respond to his request for repairs.
“Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it,” he wrote on Twitter. “I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go.”
A neighbor who drove by as the actor was covering the hole rolled down her car window and shouted her thanks at the action movie star.
“You’re welcome,” Schwarzenegger said, decked out in work boots, a leather jacket, and shades reminiscent of his role in “Terminator.”
“You have to do it yourself. This is crazy. For three weeks I’ve been waiting for this hole to be closed,” he said.
Daniel Ketchell, a spokesperson for Schwarzenegger, had said Brentwood residents made repeated requests for repairs since winter storms opened up potholes and cracks on local roads.
Mayor Karen Bass spoke about her plans to repair potholes in Los Angeles County during a press conference on April 6.
“For Angelenos who have hit a pothole … it’s more than an inconvenience, it’s a financial burden,” Bass said. “Our city is increasingly unaffordable, and these damages could mean missed days of work and unaffordable costs that create tradeoffs at home.”
Since the massive rainstorms hit California roadways, Los Angeles has received 19,692 service requests for repairs, and as of April 6, crews had filled at least 17,549 potholes, officials said during the briefing.“City workers are pulling out all the stops, not to just prepare for every pothole that is reported, but also to be proactive,” Bass said. “That means driving around the city, throughout this district and all others, to assess the conditions of our streets and identify and repair the damage right away.”
Keith Mozee, executive director and general manager of the Bureau of Street Services, said that crews are making their best efforts to respond as quickly as possible to the increasingly high number of repair requests.
Michael Cox, the maintenance division manager at the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services, said the heavy amount of rainfall has been the main reason for the damaged roads.
“Rain is one of asphalt’s worst enemies. So what happens is it just gets into the cracks and it begins breaking down the material, thus forming puddles,” Cox said in a statement to local abc7 news.
After Schwarzenegger’s video repair went viral, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works told NBCLA the hole actually wasn’t a pothole.“As is the case with similar projects impacting City streets, SoCal Gas will be required to repair the area once their work is completed,” the spokesperson added.
