Letter to the Editor: Lorain’s Streets Are a Disaster – And Our Leaders Are Out of Excuses

Drive anywhere in Lorain and you’re instantly reminded that our streets are a crumbling mess of potholes, cracks, and failed patches. Our roads aren’t just bad-they’re dangerous. Yet year after year, residents hear the same excuses from city officials. “It’s the weather,” they say. “It’s a funding issue,” they claim. “We’re working on it,” they promise. Meanwhile, nearby cities like Sheffield Lake, Avon Lake, and Amherst seem to have figured it out just fine.

A recent Morning Journal story highlighted just how deep the problem runs – and just how little our city seems able to do about it. According to Lorain’s own Engineering Department, it would cost more than $500 million to repair all 700,000 feet of asphalt and 680,000 feet of concrete streets across the city. That’s half a billion dollars, in a city that spends only $6.5 million a year on road work. It’s no wonder our streets are rated a 67 out of 100 on the city’s Pavement Condition Index – a solid “D” grade, and if you ask most residents, that’s generous.

Even Councilwoman-at-Large Mary Springowski admitted to the Morning Journal that Lorain’s streets are failing- not just in condition, but in the city’s financial ability to fix them. “We don’t have the money,” Springowski said. Yet somehow, we have money for inflated salaries, unnecessary consultants, and PR campaigns that explain how potholes form-as if residents need a science lesson instead of real repairs.

Lorain’s own Street Department Mission Statement promises to “provide citizens with safe roadways.” That’s a promise shattered every time a resident hit a crater-sized pothole on Tower Boulevard, Oberlin Avenue, Ashland Avenue, or Root Road – all streets repeatedly named by frustrated residents in local Facebook threads. One post from the Lorain Streets and Potholes group asked residents to list the worst roads in town. The result? Over 178 comments and counting-all from people who are tired of blown tires, bent rims, and repair bills they can’t afford.

This isn’t just about inconvenient bumps in the road. Our crumbling infrastructure is actively hurting Lorain’s economy. The city talks proudly about attracting new businesses, but how are customers supposed to reach them if their cars don’t survive the drive? Lorain’s downtown was supposed to be revitalized after millions of dollars in investment. Yet as Sheffield Lake Council Candidate Jon Morrow pointed out, Broadway feels more like a set for a zombie apocalypse film than a bustling business district. In contrast, Amherst – a city that spent far less on its downtown-thrives because its roads are drivable, its businesses are accessible, and its leadership understands the value of long-term infrastructure investment.

And then there’s the response from city officials when residents demand answers. Republican Ward 6 Candidate Aaron C. Knapp has repeatedly called attention to the dire state of local streets, even appearing on Channel 19 News to show just how bad the damage is. In response to one of Knapp’s many letters to Council, former Councilman Antonio Baez forwarded a message from the city’s engineer, Dale Vandersommen, detailing a long list of future projects. The list covers work slated for 2024, 2025, and even 2026-a clear admission that immediate fixes are off the table for many neighborhoods.

Here’s the reality: the city’s so-called plan is a glorified “we’ll get to it eventually” list. Meanwhile, residents are left with temporary patches that last a season-if that and a vague hope that their street might make it onto the next year’s agenda. In his email, Baez wrote, “I trust the response to be self-explanatory.” It is. It explains exactly why Lorain’s residents are fed up.

The city keeps pointing at external funding sources like ODOT, OPWC, HUD, and NOACA, as if that’s an excuse for failure. But funding alone isn’t the issue – it’s vision, leadership, and prioritization. If Lorain had the money to spruce up Broadway, it can find the money to make sure people can safely drive there. And if Lorain’s leadership can’t figure it out, maybe we need new leadership that can.

Adding to the frustration is the City’s half-hearted response, which feels more like a performance than a plan. During a recent Channel 19 News story highlighting Lorain’s Street crisis, Republican Ward 6 Candidate Aaron C. Knapp didn’t just talk about the problem- he showed up, on camera, standing in the very potholes residents have been complaining about for years. His videos documented tire-eating craters, roads so deteriorated they barely resemble pavement, and vehicles visibly taking damage just trying to get through a typical Lorain neighborhood.

Knapp was blunt in his assessment of the city’s so-called plan to fix the streets next year, saying:

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

And who can blame him? Residents have been hearing promises for years – while driving on roads that get worse every winter. Meanwhile, Angel Arroyo, who was appointed as 6th Ward Councilperson after Antonio Baez was forced to step down (because Baez seemingly, illegally, held both a council seat and a position as a Sheffield Lake Police Officer for an entire year), took a very different approach to the 19 News story. Arroyo, rather than walking the streets or inspecting the damage firsthand, chose to appear via video call-safely removed from the actual potholes and failing roads that his constituents live with every day.

Arroyo’s response during the interview was as uninspiring as the city’s maintenance efforts, stating:

“Over the years, the roads continue to get in the condition they are.”

That’s not leadership – it’s an admission of failure wrapped in a shrug. What kind of message does it send when a councilperson won’t even stand on the streets they represent? Residents don’t need a Zoom councilman, they need someone willing to walk the neighborhoods, see the damage firsthand, and fight for immediate, meaningful repairs not vague promises tied to some future funding that may or may not ever come through.

The contrast between Knapp and Arroyo couldn’t be clearer – one is out there, documenting the damage, demanding action, and even trying to fix some of the potholes himself. The other is hiding behind a screen, offering a half-hearted acknowledgment that, yes, the streets are bad – as if that’s some kind of revelation.

This is the story of Lorain in 2025: Residents demanding action, candidates showing up with work gloves and cameras, and councilmembers appearing by video chat to shrug their shoulders and explain what everyone already knows. If the streets continue to “get in the condition they are,” it’s because the people elected (or appointed) to fix them are too busy making excuses to do their jobs.

The Street Department’s purpose isn’t to make excuses. It’s to make sure Lorain’s roads are safe and maintained – full stop. The half-billion-dollar price tag isn’t an excuse to give up, it’s a challenge to get creative, seek grants, hold contractors accountable, and prioritize basic infrastructure over shiny projects and political posturing.

Lorain residents deserve better than D-rated streets, endless excuses, and leaders who show up on video calls instead of walking the neighborhoods they claim to represent. The state of our streets is more than a pothole problem – it’s a symptom of a city that forgot the basics. It’s time to stop explaining the problem and start fixing it.

A Long Overdue and Underwhelming Plan for Ward 6

Before his resignation from Lorain City Council, former 6th Ward Councilman Antonio Baez reached out to the City Engineer for an update on the official road rehabilitation plan for his ward. Baez’s inquiry came after sustained complaints from residents – many amplified by community advocate Aaron Knapp-regarding the crumbling streets and dangerous potholes plaguing Ward 6.

In response, City Engineer Dale Vandersommen provided Baez with a letter that laid out a multi-year timeline for road work in Ward 6. The letter, dated prior to Baez’s departure, read:

“The intent of this letter is to:

• Give you a report on any outstanding city-administered road work that will be performed in your ward, specifically this work has been memorialized by previous ordinances and includes:

OPWC 37-construction year 2024 and

OPWC 38-construction year 2025

• Propose future Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC) road work for construction year 2026. With the acquisition of a new milling machine, we intend to have the street department focus on asphalt streets moving forward. So for OPWC Round 39, we are proposing the concrete roads we intend to contract out.
• Share the list of in-house asphalt resurfacing projects this year (2024). We will work with the street department on the 2025 asphalt streets in the fall of this year.”

The plan, which stretches across three years, identifies the following projects:

OPWC 37-Construction Year 2024:

Black River Cir. (Riverside Dr. to Riverside Dr.)

Riverside Dr. (Black River Cir. to Black River Cir.)

OPWC 38-Construction Year 2025:

Andover (Packard to Fairless)

Andover (Fairless to Goble)

Charleston (Packard to Fairless)

Fairless (Grove to Gary)

Fairless (Grove to Meadow)

Fairless (Meadow to Palm)

Fairless (Palm to Andover)

Fairless (Andover to Charleston)

Fairless (Charleston to Willow)

Fairless (Willow to Tacoma)

Meadow (Packard to Fairless)

Tacoma (Packard to Fairless)

Willow (Packard to Fairless)

OPWC 39 (Proposed for 2026):

Packard Dr. (Camden Ave. to Chelsea Ave.)

The letter closes with a request for Baez’s formal approval by June 11, 2024, to ensure the proposed 2026 work could be added to the June 17 Council agenda.

However, Baez would never get the chance to see that plan through – because he was forced to step down from his Council seat after it was revealed that his simultaneous employment as a Sheffield Lake Police Officer legally disqualified him from serving. Despite holding both roles for over a year, the conflict of interest ultimately forced his resignation.

This left Ward 6 in the hands of Angel Arroyo, a politically appointed replacement who, to date, has not shown the same proactive approach as Baez. Arroyo appeared remotely for media coverage on the street issue, while Knapp-who has been raising alarms about Ward 6’s roads for years – was seen directly on the streets documenting the potholes and even working to patch them himself.

For Knapp, the long-term plan offered little reassurance, which is why his blunt response to the city’s repair timeline has become a rallying cry for frustrated residents:

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

I too will echo Knapps sentiments of “We will believe it when we see it”.

Frank Lee Virtuous