Mayor Lucas says Kansas City hiring more staff to fill potholes, following Star report
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas took to Twitter on Monday morning to highlight recent efforts to address the city’s potholes, and pledged to hire more staff to fill them.
The thread came on the heels of a report by The Star which found that the city’s 2021 pothole action plan is falling short of many residents’ expectations.
“We hate potholes. The City continues its work to eliminate them after decades of deferred maintenance,” the mayor wrote on Twitter. “We’re not at #PotholeZero, but we’re working to eliminate them.”
Mayor Lucas added that the city is actively hiring to fill open positions on its pothole crews. Public Works Director Michael Shaw told The Star that only around 35 employees work on pothole efforts now—a number he hopes to double with new hires.
The Star’s reporting found that the city is on track to fill fewer potholes during the 2022 fiscal year than it did the previous year. It also found disparities between ZIP codes in how quickly the city resolves pothole complaints.
Lucas noted that decreased pothole filling efforts are due to a greater focus on street resurfacing, which he said are “meant to be a more lasting fix to potholes and road decay.”
He wrote that the roads scheduled for repaving this year include Prospect Avenue, Wornall Road, 63rd Street, Linwood Boulevard, Tiffany Springs Parkway, Northeast Englewood Road, 85th Street, Broadway Boulevard and Troost Avenue.
Local activists agree that resurfacing is needed on these major roads as well as on neighborhood streets.
The mayor also made a connection between infrastructure improvements and crime rates in the city in a reply below his thread on pothole repairs.
“I believe we can do better with both,” he said to a commenter’s question about homicide rates. “Perfection unlikely, but we owe it to the people to keep trying. You’ll also see a close connection between busted infrastructure and crime outcomes.”
If you know of a pothole that needs repairing, here’s how to let the city know about it. The simplest fix is to report it to 311—but if that doesn’t work, we lay out three other options that may inspire action.
Do you have more questions about infrastructure in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com
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