Alternative journalism spring 2023: The pothole problem

The Issue – Potholes:

The Department of Public Works’ Maintenance Division is responsible for filling potholes in New Orleans. Since May 2010, the City has filled over 360,000 potholes. Potential causes of potholes include vehicle loading (axle loads, tire pressure and gross vehicle weight), traffic volume, environmental conditions, topography, subgrade condition, initial pavement design and construction practices, maintenance activity and pavement age.

An “estimated 32% of [America’s] major roadways are rated in poor to mediocre condition, and driving on poor roads costs motorists $67 billion in additional car operating and repair costs annually,” according to the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2013 Report Card on America’s Infrastructure. In Louisiana specifically, 23% of roads are in non-acceptable condition and 9% of bridges are in poor condition (Quote Wizard). In the neighborhood of East Carrolton, there are seven potholes within a one mile radius.

Driving in areas with potholes affects vehicle operating costs, travel delays, and crash or accident costs. The aging roadways in Louisiana cost drivers $624 per year (Quote Wizard). Pothole repair expenses include personnel, equipment, and materials, and on a national basis equate to a multi-billion dollar annual expenditure that could easily be avoided by consistent upkeep. This is evident through Pothole.info’s research which found that failure to spend $1 in road repair typically results in $7 of cost five years later; whereas whole road rebuilding costs 14 times as much as repairs.

A team of analysts at Quote Wizard found that Louisiana has the 11th worst road infrastructure in the nation, as of March 2023. The notoriety of New Orleans roads and the damage they do to cars is well founded; TRIP conducted a study which found that driving on deficient roads in Louisiana costs drivers an extra $6.5 billion per year in depreciation, repairs, tire wear, and fuel consumption (Tires Plus). Louisiana is rated as the third most expensive state in the country for car insurance and averages nearly two times the national insurance rate. The average cost of car insurance in Louisiana is $3,041 annually, whereas the national average is $1,601; the disparity in the cost of car insurance for Louisiana is directly attributed to the damage potholes cause to cars.

The severity of the damage caused by potholes to cars depends on the speed at which a driver hits the pothole as well as the depth of the pothole. Potholes impact tires, wheels, suspension and steering, and the undercarriage and exhaust of a car.  Common tire issues include sidewall bulges, tread separation, or punctures. Moog Parts, a steering and suspension brand, explains how these issues develop: “A sidewall bulge happens when your tire hits a pothole and the impact separates the (normally) airtight liner of the tire from the tire sidewall, allowing air to seep into the carcass (or body) of the tire. This causes a bubble in the sidewall that could blow out at any moment. Similarly, tread separation occurs when the tire is compressed against the wheel when you hit the hard edge of the pothole, slicing the rubber. As the rims on most modern cars are aluminum, they are easily dented if you drive into a deep pothole.”

In addition, potholes can cause bends, chips and cracks in wheels, which will prevent the wheel from forming an airtight seal with the tire. This could cause issues with wheel alignment leading to trouble steering. Lastly, “cars with a low ride height are more likely to be damaged by potholes. Cosmetic damage from potholes includes scrapes on low-hanging bumpers or side skirts. More serious damage includes scrapes along the undercarriage that cause rust and leaks or holes being ripped in exhaust pipes, muffler or catalytic converter” (Moog Parts).

Not only are potholes an added expense that can damage one’s car, they are also representative of ableism as disabled individuals are unable to use a wheelchair on the sidewalk or streets of New Orleans. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has determined that 94 percent of their bus stops are not ADA compliant because of broken or incomplete sidewalks and a lack of wheelchair ramps. As Emily Ladau, a wheelchair-using disability advocate explains, “Rolling in a wheelchair and walking are both problematic when places are filled with cracked or broken sidewalks, and unpaved paths. There are sidewalks that lead to potholes and rough roads, to high curbs and no curb cuts. There are places that couldn’t be bothered with sidewalks at all” (Center for Disability Rights).

Three disabled men are in the process of suing New Orleans for failing to comply with the Americans with Disability Acts requirements for streets and sidewalks. The plaintiffs, Joseph Henry, Francis Falls, and Stephan Namisnak, claim that “work scheduled nearly a decade ago to construct accessible curbs and improve sidewalks has still not been done, putting their lives at risk on daily trips around their neighborhoods” (Nola.com). The plaintiffs argue that they are at “risk for personal harm by attempting to use inaccessible sidewalks and curbs (by possibly tipping over), or they can risk being subjected to a criminal fine for riding their wheelchair in the public street or being hit by a passing vehicle” (Nola.com). One of the plaintiffs’ lawyers highlighted “that the city took more than two decades from passage of the ADA in 1990 to write a plan for curb compliance. Then the original plan and an update in 2018 didn’t even identify a schedule or priority level for the curbs that had been earmarked as most in need of fixing” (Nola.com). 

A street in New Orleans, Hennessey Street, that has an overwhelming amount of potholes in a fifty foot radius. (Photo by: Bart Everson)

The Solution – Alix Earle:

Alix Ashley Earle is a 22 year old college student who was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, on December 16, 2000. She is a senior at the University of Miami studying business administration and marketing. She posted her first Tik Tok in February of 2020, which featured her and her friends wearing trash bags as outfits; as of February 2023, Alix Earle has 4.6 million followers on Tik Tok and 2.3 million followers on Instagram.

 In a video “tracking Earle’s sky-rocketing following, one user showed that over the course of six days in December, Earle amassed more than 600,000 followers on TikTok. The user also showed that in a 30-minute span, Earle gained over 3,000 followers on Instagram” (People). Many credit her “Get Ready With Me” videos that focus on her either putting on makeup or deciding on her outfit for the day as the reason for her success. She uses these videos as “an opportunity [for viewers] get to know [Alix], hear about her day and get a snippet of the drama in her life, learn what shows she’s watching, where she parties and more. It’s a tactic that, whether she knows it or not, separates her from other creators and keeps viewers wanting more” (SI Lifestyle).

Alix Earle currently charges $40,000-70,000 for each sponsored video on her social media accounts. In addition, Earle has been granted opportunities for partnerships with many competitive influencer desired brands such as Tarte, Rare Beauty, GrubHub, Bloom Greens, and White Fox Boutique. Through these partnerships, she has been able to travel on all-expense paid trips, as well as socialize with A-list celebrities including Selena Gomez, Hailey Bieber, and Dolly Parton. 

Alix Earle is the embodiment of the new “it” girl; however, the one difference between Alix Earle and other influencers is her desire to be considered relatable. Alix Earle frequently shares the “less than glamorous” parts of her life, such as her struggles with acne, bullying, anxiety, and the typical hardships that most college students face on a daily basis. As HerCampus explains, “[Alix’s] videos show a side of influencers most influencers do not show on social media.” Although she is often on sponsored brand trips, she somehow still finds time to complete all her assignments, including a 25 page paper which she started the day before it was due. Her viewers praise her for leading a double life “and following the down-to-earth college lifestyle.” For example, “just a day after rubbing elbows with [Miley Cyrus], Earle posted a ‘room tour’ video of her disorganized college apartment. ‘This legitimately made me feel so much better about the fact that I am also just a messy girl,’ wrote one user in the comments” (People).

Experts at influencer marketing company, Ubiquitous, “found that just one of Earle’s videos can cause searches for a product to skyrocket by 100% on Google Trends, according to data shared with Fox News Digital. Ubiquitous researched every product in Earle’s make-up routine, along with other items from her Amazon recommendations, her hair routine, eyelash routine and brand deals and found that of the 33 items surveyed, 10 of them were now sold out and a majority of the remaining products had been sold out sometime after they were featured in one of Earle’s videos. In addition, every item on the list had seen search interest spike to over 70 on the Google Trends 100-scale index, with 26 of the 33 items jumping to a staggering 100 at one point” (Fox News). The Alix Earle Effect can be analyzed through products such as the Mielle Organics’ rosemary mint scalp and hair strengthening oil, NYX white eyeliner, and make-up powder puffers; all of these items had an increase in sales after it was discovered that Alix Earle approved of these items and used them herself. She described the products as “her favorites” and rates everything a “ten out of ten.” Her followers flocked to the website to purchase these coveted items, resulting in an increase in price due to their popularity and some of the items being placed on backorder for several weeks. Alix Earle is single handedly responsible for the sudden emergence in teenagers and young adults’ use of bright colored eyeliner on inner eyelids, slicked-back hairstyles, and bronzing drops.

New Orleans Implementation:

An inspection completed in March of 2022 found that the New Orleans Department of Public Works took 204 days to resolve pothole requests from January 2019 through May 2021 and left some requests pending indefinitely, demonstrating that street maintenance is not a top priority for the city. The average time for pending requests at the time of the Office of Inspector General’s inspection was 348 days. The report also reveals that the city does not have “defined goals or performance measures” for completing pothole repairs within a specific number of days (Fox Live). The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that it will cost $2.6 trillion to fix the crumbling highway infrastructure and all the potholes in the United States (CNN).

While fixing the severity of potholes in New Orleans may seem like a daunting task, the solution being proposed is for celebrities to take matters into their own hands, and donate a portion of their earnings from sponsored content to successfully fill the potholes. This would avoid having to go through the Department of Public Works, leading to a more efficient timeline of pothole repairs. Using Alix Earle as an example for the implementation of the solution, the ways in which this proposal would help the city is unfathomable. As mentioned previously, Alix Earle earns an average of $40,000-$70,000 for her video. If she were to donate a third of her earnings from a single video, which averages to $20,000, to help repair the potholes, she would make a considerable impact on the New Orleans road infrastructure issue. 

According to RenoCompare.com, at $80 per ton, $20,000 would enable New Orleans to buy 250 tons of asphalt for their streets, assuming Alix Earle agrees to donate a third of her earnings. With the average pothole being two square feet and four inches deep, the city could purchase 800 pounds of asphalt to fill in the hole, relieving the streets of around 2,480 potholes. If Alix Earle was willing to donate $20,000 monthly, she would be able to sponsor the repair of  29,760 potholes in one year. Considering that the Department of Public Works only filled 25,348 potholes in 2014, influencers, such as Alix Earle in this example, would be making more of an impact than the government in terms of repairing the streets of New Orleans. 

Residents of New Orleans must rely on others to come up with a solution to potholes, as the government does not seem to care unless it has a direct impact on the tourism industry. This can be seen through Dep. Mayor Cedric Grant’s $90 million project, “paid with a combination of local, state and federal funds — to repave certain streets, repair curbs and banquettes and install ramps for wheelchairs” leading up to the 2013 SuperBowl (Nola.com). He prioritized ensuring that the “streets, potholes and streetlights around the Superdome will be in working order in time for the game on Feb. 3” (Nola.com). The decision to repair areas only in connection with the SuperDome sparked outrage from local New Orleanians as they feared that “the city is doing all it can to put a mask on right now to make it seem like it’s something it is not” and that after the SuperBowl, “the city will abandon any street improvement projects, the streetcar will go back to limited service (this has been the case for over two years now), and all will be as it has always been” (Huffington Post).

Some readers may stipulate that relying on Alix Earle to fix the road infrastructure of New Orleans may seem far-fetched as she has no ties to the city and community. However, this statement is untrue as Alix Earle has visited New Orleans several times over the past years to visit her sister who attends Tulane University and partake in the many Mardi Gras Parades. Alix Earle would be giving back to the community in an incredible way and as a daughter of two millionaires, she can afford to donate a small portion of her income. 

Residents of St. Peter Street took matters into their own hands, filling a pothole with pandemic decorations. (Photo by: Bart Everson)