There’s a plan in place to alleviate perpetual flooding in a South Side Neighborhood. Too bad the plan is a sick joke:
Public Works Director David Barber on Tuesday will report to the City Council what his department plans to do to improve Humboldt Street and rid the area of flooding with pervious concrete – a “green” material that allows water to drain right through the concrete with no runoff.
“It will be nice to see how it works,” Barber said [Emphasis mine].
The $5,050 expense is more likely to happen than the option neighbors in the area have with a $6,300 special assessment project that would require property owners to pay for 20 percent of the sidewalk improvements.
Translation: Instead of a real draining fix, they want to let the flood waters seep into the ground. Through concrete. Well, they will “see how it works.”
My two cents: The whole article is filled with denials that the city doesn’t care about the South Side, that it hasn’t been ignoring the South Side, yadda yadda. But toward the end, the article quotes activist Lavetta Ricca who says that the neglect has been so bad for so long that it may be too late. Lavetta should know.
Frankly, I’m sick of polioticians holding press conferences and making appearances at South Side events, but never finding the testicular fortutude to actually spend cash on the South Side.
Anyone who thinks the city is just going to willingly hand the South Side enough money to really fix this problem is nuts. The city TOLD the feds they would use stimulus cash to fix South Side sidewalks, and instead they diverted it to do a favor for a private charity that has it’s own fundraising capabilities. The people on Humboldt street do not. Instead they get allegedly permeable concrete.
Related posts here and here and here.
Tags: Clyde Gulley, flooding, LaVetta Ricca, sidewalks, south side
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Wouldn’t brick be cheaper in the long run?
You can reuse the bricks after you work under the roadway. The perviousness of brick roadways is well proven and established. Yes, brick roadways DO reduce runoff and help improve ground water levels.
Investing in concrete… even a more exotic concrete seems shortsighted. Perhaps they forgot the huge spike in concrete prices not so many months ago? There is a strong likelihood those prices will return when the economy recovers. Concrete is better than asphalt tho…
Its the whole idea of putting nice wheels on a shitty car, don’t you think?
So, you’re unhappy that they’re fixing the sidewalks at city expense?
They are fixing sidewalks? That hasn’t been established yet. All they have done is come up with a plan that MAY not fix the flooding problem.
The PJStar article said plenty of money is already spent on the 1st District (which includes Downtown and the southside) sidewalks. Lumping downtown and the southside makes things sound rosier than they are. If they break out how much of the 1st district sidewalk funds went to downtown business district – I know CAT had a sidewalk request funded in the last couple fo years – how much is being spent on the southside?
“Instead of a real draining fix, they want to let the flood waters seep into the ground. Through concrete. Well, they will “see how it works.—
This is fairly state-of-the-art in dealing with drainage. Groundwater is GOOD. (Excessive) Runoff into rivers is BAD. We don’t want it to drain AWAY, we want it to drain DOWN where it can filter into the aquifer.
In states that are either water-scarce already or that have serious runoff problems, there are often already state laws or zoning laws in place requiring new big-box-type stores or mega parking lots for shopping centers have permeable concrete. (Typically the zoning laws say “you’ve got to soak up X amount of rainwater and can only have Y amount of runoff, you figure it out.” and you can build smaller lots or deal with certain retention ponds or rain cachement areas or permeable paving or whatever you want.)
We considered repaving our driveway permeable, actually. I’m kind-of jealous they’re getting permeable paving.
If the question is whether to use non-permeable concrete or permeable concrete, that’s one thing. These people have standing water in their front yards because there is no sidewalk/gutters. They need drainage.