By Sean Maher 
March 18, 2009 Ben Berkowitz Sean,
Have you seen http://www.SeeClickFix.com?
It was launched last March and has gotten a little use Oakland.
You can embed our map in the Tribune and allow users to report issues like potholes publicly. Users can add photos, comments or click I want this issue fixed too. When an issue is resolved anyone can close it.
As well you can create a watch area for the city where they receive emails when issues are reported. (A totally free tool for the city and citizens)
Shoot me an email: ben@seeclickfix.com to discuss more or if you want to just create a widget for the site:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/widget
SeeClickFix is currently embedded in Boston.com, Philly.com and the NYTimes New Jersey Local sites as well as a number of smaller blogs.
See my analysis of how much "stimulus" Oakland will receive to repave its streets:
See my analysis of how to better serve Oakland's local economy, mobility and community, instead of wasting $27 million per year on repaving over 800 miles of roads.
http://newoaktown.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/connecting-oaklands-neighborhoods/
When I worked there, many residential streets in the "iron triangle" were in way worse shape than than our worst streets.
I'm 25 and I cannot fathom how a street can last 85 years of everyday pounding by cars, buses, trucks and weather. Well evidently they cannot, judging from their conditon now.Also, 85 years is the official number given by the city, so I imagine that in actuality the cycle might be longer than that.
My bike is my primary mode of transportation and I feel the rought roads going downtown on Broadway, going East on International, and around my old Bart Station, the Coliseum. And to be frank, I did notice that the streets were generally in worse shape when I moved to East Oakland from Lake Merrit, why does that happen? I know that city official are not out to "screw" anyone, but there is obviously a structure in place that allows for unfairness, if you will.
With the economic collapse I think an entire structure of society has collapsed. The idea that the "commons" are not important and thatit's the "government's job to fix" will not cut it anymore. I would like this grassroots effort to highlight the breakdowns in road maintanence to help create a conversation about how to re-design this broken system so we are not playing catch-up, and only responding to citizen outrage.
I look forward to reading this story!
The East Bay Bicycle Coalition has an effective strategy for getting needed repairs to improve the safety of bicycling on public roads. We take your reports and forward them to the responsible parties in the form of a liability notice!
Please visit this link http://www.ebbc.org/?q=node/2963 to view a recent pothole report that has since been repaired.
-Robert Raburn, 510-533-RIDE
That is a GREAT idea.
And part of what we hope to get from this report is more info on where the serious potholes are - so we can make more reports. We would love the East Bay Bicycle Coalition to join us on our "We Hella Hate Potholes" bike event on May 2nd (see the blog posts in the middle column.
We also still need five more people to donate $10 each.
