KANSAS CITY, MO — The big thing was a terrible menace for three years before residents of the Waldo neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, happily welcomed its death. They’ll gather Friday at Frank Soreno’s home to celebrate the end of a life not well-lived, eat some cake and toast to smooth driving days ahead.
The thing was a pothole, and it’s been nagging the 51-year-old Soreno for years. Soreno has been complaining about it since March to the city’s public works department. As the months wore on, more wheels were jarred. More alignments were sent out of whack. More tempers flared.
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To get the city’s attention, he decided to throw a birthday party to show how long Waldo neighbors have been dodging the thing. To announce it, he posted a photo on Facebook of a slice of cake topped with a Number 3 candle sitting in the middle of the crater.
The gambit worked. The pothole was repaired within 48 hours.
“My bottle of awesome sauce is nearly depleted with this one,” Soreno, who has lived in Kansas City for 20 years, told Patch. “I’ve been trying for years and years to get the city of Kansas City to focus on street preservation, and it’s just as difficult as anyone imagine.”
The Waldo Pothole, as Soreno named it, “is not even close to being the worst one I have reported, but it’s 100 yards from my house,” he said.
Though he meant for his post to be lighthearted and full of holiday fun, Soreno said it draws attention to serious infrastructure problems in Kansas City and the rest of the country.
“We all know how truly pitiful the situation is,” Soreno said, adding his intent isn’t to “stick it to the city.”
“The public works department is pretty limited by funding,” he said, “but they do find money for a lot of flashy things. For decades, the funding hasn’t been there, and now we’re seeing the streets crumble into gravel and there’s no way to fix it.”
A harsh winter took a toll on Kansas City’s streets, Soreno said.
The pothole had been on the city’s list for repairs, but Maggie Green, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Public Works Department told news station WDAF that weather conditions hampered workers’ ability to keep ahead of15,000 pothole reports filed since January. About two-thirds of them have been fixed.
“The weather is always a challenge,” Green said, noting that in that in the past week, something like 2,000 potholes were patched.
“Anytime it’s pouring down rain it’s difficult to patch but as long as we have good weather, crews are out there working on that list,” she said.
To celebrate the Waldo Pothole’s repair, Soreno invited Waldo neighbors and multiple city official to its “graduation” ceremony Friday. Cake and light refreshments will be served at the hourlong gathering.
Soreno said he he was surprised by the traction his post gained on social media, not just on the local Waldo neighborhood Facebook page, but nationally.
“Some people might say I’m a hero, and some people might think I’m an agitator,” he said. “In the end, I’m trying to ensure our city refocuses the effort on funding adequate street preservation, and that’s my entire push.”