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From Harry L. Langer  harrylanger at hllanger.com June 24, 2008 Re: New York City Potholes and Faulty Street and Sidewalk Repairs.

Many streets and sidewalks in Manhattan and other Boroughs are in deplorable and dangerous condition (potholes; ruts; sunken and uneven street surfaces and utility manhole covers; broken and uneven curbs and sidewalks; etc.). They expose New York City to substantial liability risks
and costs.

This condition is primarily a result of faulty repairs and workmanship on the part of contractors working for or on behalf of Con Ed, Verizon, Time Warner, cable companies, MTA, the NYC Water Board, the NYC Public Works Department, developers, landlords, management companies, etc.

To restore the streets and sidewalks and keep them in good condition at little or no cost to NYC, it is suggested that all entities, their agents, and their contractors opening City streets and sidewalks for any purpose be held jointly and severally liable and responsible to guarantee their restoration work for a period of five years after completion and hold NYC harmless for liability claims with respect thereto.

Reporting faulty street and sidewalk restoration work can be easily and inexpensively performed by existing NYC employees — Meter Maids, or Sanitation Department truck drivers, or Traffic and regular Police, or Building Department inspectors, or any combination thereof. It merely requires a simple location and description form or “blackberry” program that could be submitted or reported to the Building Department who would then trace the responsible parties through their Permit Registry and Property Ownership files and take appropriate action.

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The problem is that oil is not expensive enough in the US. With Netherlands having passed the $10/gallon, the $4/gallon in the US is still a real bargain. And Yes, those countries use now less oil - their own governments knew how to bring this about.

Instead of doing something for the US citizenry, like organizing at least NY City staff to report on potholes, the city, and the Federal Administration as well, will rather create an atmosphere of “blame-the-other.” Clearly some diplomats - specially those that come from countries poor in their legal system - do indeed owe money to American authorities and seem to look as if they could not care less. But creating a “Season” to hunt all diplomats gets exaggerated demands on the one hand, but very conscious payments only from those countries that are cautious with their own legal systems. These can be expected to pay even when they were faced with unjust tickets. This sort of States are indeed a minority of the UN network.