Oakland District Three Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, here’s your wake up call! The Adams Point natives are restless for Perkins Street to be repaved, and this year, not next year. This is your 2020 Oakland Election wake up call.
Oakland Adams Point Residents have taken to social media site Nextdoor to complain about driving conditions along Perkins Street. Perkins runs from Bellevue at the Lake Merritt Bird Sanctuary, intersects with Grand Avenue, then goes uphill until it stops at Orange Avenue. Because of this, Perkins is one of two main arteries that run through Adams Point – the other being Euclid Avenue.
Also, because of its layout, Perkins is well used – so much so that the kind of repaving that Euclid Avenue received two years ago is more than desired, it’s demanded.
Major Complaints About Adams Point’s Perkins On Nextdoor
A post on Monday February 10th got the ball rolling about Perkins. This one:
Howdy neighbors – does anyone know how to find information about a resurfacing plan? I’d like to know when our very pitted & gutted street will get the same love that Euclid has received? I ride my bike down Perkins and swear my fillings are going to rattle out of my mouth some day!!!!
Thanks and happy Monday
(As a side note, if you see some fillings on Perkins, now you know how they got there!).
One resident remarked “Good luck, we just pay more in gas tax etc. Check out Piedmont roads. They get the luv. Money be gets money.” Another wrote “Well we’re on the list, but I’ve lived here since 2005 and perkins has needed repaving almost that entire time. The best they’ve ever done was patch the holes but only after at least three people have reported them.”
Then another resident posted the City of Oakland schedule that listed the street repavement dates from something called the “2019 3-Year Paving Plan“. Perkins Street was slated for repaving in 2021. That caused another resident to observe…
“Pavement index rating of 12, which is almost as low as it can get via this CA rating index: https://sfgov.org/scorecards/livability/pavement-condition-index
Hopefully they’ll prioritize.”
And that led to this string of responses:
“That’s hilarious! You think Oakland gives a shit about their streets?”
“Yup. Have you driven down Euclid lately?”
“The 5th of Never. Are the Pothole Vigilantes still a thing?”
“I wouldn’t ride a bike down Perkins unless it’s a mountain bike with big knobby tires. My road bike with the old fashion skinny tires wouldn’t make it. I won’t even run on it. A gravel or dirt road is smoother.”
“If you want to have an effect, maybe shoot a note to the Oakland DOT and ask them if they will confirm the schedule and do it on time.”
“I’ve been on some hella bad streets, many of them in Oakland, they don’t give a fuck about our streets. Think about how long international was fucked up.”
“There are some streets off of Fruitvale that are like being in Fallujah after the bombing: Perkins isn’t THAT bad yet… Oakland residents approved measure KK back in 2016 that will provide $600M towards repaving and other projects. It passed with over 82% of the vote.”
“see click fix (apparently it works!)
Unfortunately, no. Perkins has tons of reports there for years. Nothing done at all. I’ve taken to avoiding that street at all costs on my bike, scooter, and skateboard.”
“I think the process for prioritization is pretty clearly documented. If we wanted to budget for more crews annually it would go faster. This is the rate and order we get for the funding we allocate annually. If we got someone to do Perkins sooner someone else would have to wait longer, and I doubt anyone in authority is willing to deal with the blowback that would cause unless it was a clear emergency.”
“I think it’s also important to note that one of the fundamental problems with Perkins is that it was a stupid place to put a street from a hydrological point of view. It runs right in the bottom of former streambed — its a valley after all — so in winter there is always water moving under the street, and with the whole hill subsiding this causes the 100 year old water mains to crack on a regular basis, sending even more water at pressure gushing under the pavement. Even now there seems to be another EBMUD issue at Van Buren and Perkins. So potholes are inevitable: the neighborhood was laid out in haste after the earthquake prompted the city to seize the Adams estate, and it shows. I’m not sure there is much point in fixing Perkins without digging up the water mains and replacing them for the next 100 years, otherwise it will look like Staten before too long: a patchwork of EBMUD repairs. Would probably make sense to rethink the water flow under the street when its dug up. This part of Oakland has been the site of a battle between civil engineers and ancient watershed of what is now Lake Merritt for over 100 years, and one hopes that when we have to do it again we will incorporate more awareness of, well, the historic tendency of water to flow down hill.”
Well, for those who want action, call your Oakland City Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney at Phone 510-238-7003 or sent an email to [email protected].
Stay tuned.