Former actor and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been hailed as a hero by members of his Brentwood, Los Angeles community for filling a “pothole” that had plagued drivers and cyclists for weeks.
Schwarzenegger recently posted video that shows him patching up the street cavity with a crew.
“Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it,” he wrote on Twitter. “I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go.”
There was just one problem with that good deed, according to the city. Officials from SoCal Gas say the depression was not a pothole, but a service trench.
“It’s a service trench that relates to active, permitted work being performed at the location by SoCal Gas, who expects the work to be completed by the end of May,” a spokesperson for the Public Works Department said in an initial statement. "As is the case with similar projects impacting City streets, SoCal Gas will be required to repair the area once their work is completed."
Arnold shot back. He says there were two holes – one that was apparently a trench and another that was clearly a pothole. The governator and his reps also asked an obvious question. Why would the city allow any hole, intentional or otherwise, to sit for months without repair?
The city blamed the recent rains for the work delay. Regardless, the publicity clearly roused L.A. to action. In a followup statement, Public Works said the necessary paving would be completed by the end of the week.
“It’s always important to take bureaucratic damage control with a grain of salt,” Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell said on Twitter. “First, they implied @schwarzenegger paved over active gas work that would finish at the end of May. Then, the truth came out: the gas work was done in January (and the timeline for paving sped up).”
“And to be clear,” Ketchell added, “this wasn’t a political thing for @schwarzenegger. He didn’t blame the mayor, who he knows has only been in office for a few months and is trying to hire more street workers right now. He just wanted to show it’s possible to get things done quickly.”
The controversy has ended on a high note. On Thursday, SoCal Gas announced it had already completed the repairs. The utility left Schwarzenegger’s original paving in place and strengthened his work with some additional equipment.
The former governor has offered his sincere thanks.
“Teamwork,” he tweeted. “Happy to help speed this up, and thanks to the crew for pumping up my fix.”