Mayor Pounds Pavement to Fix Potholes

The last time this two-mile stretch of Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood was repaved, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Walter Alston was the rookie manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and “From Here to Eternity” took the Oscar for best picture.

And the two men who presided over Monday’s celebratory asphalt-laying -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilman Tom LaBonge -- were both still in diapers.

Back in 1954, many roads around Los Angeles were made of concrete, which is tough and can last for decades.

But roads like Burbank Boulevard -- particularly this stretch between Vineland Avenue and Lankershim Boulevard -- have long since become pitted with potholes, leaving motorists grumbling since the 1980s.

Enter LaBonge, whose district includes North Hollywood. Elected in 2003, LaBonge succeeded this year in getting the project moved up on the list of things to do for Los Angeles’ Bureau of Street Services.

“The community has suffered enough,” he said.

And apparently Burbank Boulevard isn’t alone. “We’ve got some that are 60 to 70 years old,” said Bill Robertson, the bureau’s general manger. “There are some streets that have never been paved” over with asphalt.

The city has about 6,500 miles of roadways and is set to repave about 500 miles of them this year.

“We’re spending about a third of what we should do on street services,” said Villaraigosa, who added that police and firefighting will get the lion’s share of extra funding but that street paving will be next in line.

After offering brief comments, Villaraigosa and LaBonge donned hardhats and construction vests and clambered aboard a giant paving machine.

If the patch of asphalt near the McDonald’s on Burbank Boulevard remains rough, motorists know who to blame.