Hungry potholes seek new victims
feet solution and no solution at
al'".
Unfortunately, implementation
of street repairs could take up
to 90 days due to complications
in approving the bond sale, ad-
mitted city administrator Syl-
rester Murray.
THE DECISION was the cul-
mination of years of partisan
bickering. During elections, the
city GOP has been up to its
neck in espousing pothole re-
pair while their vocal Demo-
cratic and Human Rights Par-
ty counterparts have worried
about "more important" social
services.
Meanwhile, their children fish
in and recover automobile carts
from the roadbed monsters.
According to Webster's Dic-
tionary, potholes are "pot-shap-
ed holes found in roadways."
Yet this does not adequately de-
scribe the many-faceted crea-
tures. Instead, I suggest seven
categories:
r Craters - the well-known
circular gouges;
r Dips - similar to craters,
but smoother-complexioned;
* Ridges - the opposite of
a crater, i.e., a mild rise in the
road;
* Rilles - crack-like forma-
tions which can extend several
blocks;
* Pockmarks - a series of
mini-craters appearing in clus-
ters; and
0 Patchwork - uneven layers
of pavement left by well-mean-
ing repair crews. This has a
pseudo-cobblestone effect when
driven over.
"EVERY POTHOLE is differ-
ent and requires different treat-
ment," explains Fred Mammel,
city superintendent of public
works. For extensive repairs,
the entire street is resurfaced,
while isolated potholes receive
patchwork treatment.
To repair a pothole, he says,
the affected area is dug out un-
til a firm base is reached;
next, the hole is squared and
filled with bituminous concrcte
or asphalt - all at a cost of
less than $6 a square foot.
But until the repair work oe-
gins, potholes continue to take
their toll.
"I've heard of people drop-
ping their tires in Glacer Way's
deep ruts, warns Dial-A-Ride
driver Susan Schurman.
"I feel I can speak for a
number of drivers - the city
situation is hard on the passeng-
ers, hard on the driver, asd
rough on the vehicle too," she
adds.
OTHER BAD areas include
South Maple Ave. between Li-
berty, and Pauline streets,
state Jim Robinson, Dial-A-
Ride's operations supervisor.
Campus highlights feature
North University Street's Dent-
al School pockmark formations;
Jefferson Street's vicious patch-
work, and South U's exiliarating
series of four roller-coaster dips
near State St.
Maynard St. behind the LSA
Bldg. is a study in pothole types.
Boasting at least two potholes
per square yard in a 70 ft.-long
section, the road features "the
pit", an evil-looking crater mea-
suring 38 inches by one yd.
by six inches deep.
In a survey of East Univer-
sity St. near the Engin. School,
a cyclist experiences an aver-
age of 26 discomfitting jolts per
minute.
East 'U' is even more unique
because its potholes defy the
aforementioned categories. Ra-
ther, it resembles solidified
cake frosting.
We had better stop the rav-
enous craters before they seek
new' victims. Already sidewalks
and parking structure interiors
are succumbing.
THE
Michigan Daily.
Edited ond managed by Students at the
University of Michigan
Friday, August 16, 1974
News Phone: 764-0552
Fiscal resposibIiity
DESPITE MY DISAPPROVAL of the city council's deci-
sion regarding the jazz festival, I feel obligated to
voice my objections to the view expressed by Doug Nelson.
Mr. Nelson, in his letter which appeared in Tuesday's
Daily, stated that he had closed his bank account because
one of the vice-presidenlts of the bank (also a council
member) voted against holding the festival. He went on
to suggest that someone more knowledgeable write and
suggest more ways to "turn economic pressure on other
council members too."
First, this policy. if carried out, would effectively
limit the legislative bodies of our nation to those people
with nothing to lose. Many nualified candidates would
be scared off fearine great nersonal financial loss.
Secondly, the government of the people (if it exists
now) would be replaced by government of those who,
with their great financial power, would have the ability
to force their views on the lawmakers even when they
conflict with the views of the majority.
Third and foremost, everyone, council members in-
cluded, has the right to his political views. A policy of
fiscal retaliation would destroy that right. Control of
our representatives should remain where it is-in the bal-
lot box.
IN SHORT, economic pressure is nothing short of eco-
nomic blackmail which can be no better justified
than can threats of nhvsical violence. Control should be
over the office. not the person in it.
--STEVE LEMIRE
By BILL HEENAN
WHILE DRIVING, one sud-
denly realizes that he is
entering Ann Arbor long before
any 'welcome' signs greet him.
Instead, State Street's pothole
gauntlet reminds the driver by
devouring her hubcaps, shock-
ing shock absorbers, and bounc-
ing him through a convertible
roof.
Potholes this year are as Ann
Arborish as striking unions and
the humidity. And we may see
even more of our gaping-mouth-
ed friends unless city repair
crews can shut them by winter.
Last month, City Council fin-
ally approved an $800,000 bond
for street repair, but in the
prophetic words of Mayor Jam-
es Stephenson, the decision was
"a choice between an imper-
Population control pangs
By ALLEN MILLER
WITH WORLD POPULATION due to reach 7
billion by the year 2000, governments, uni-
versities, and foundations everywhere are ready-
ing population control programs aimed at achiev-
ing a Zero Population Growth (ZPG) by the end
of the century.
These efforts are doomed to failure, charges a
new group of "political" population specialists,
because they neglect the real reasons why poor
people have large families.
Population experts have traditionally held that
only through "control" programs such as clinics
and family planning centers can escalating popu-
lation pressures be eased, These assumptions are
being challenged by the "political" experts, like
India's Mahmood Mandami.
Birth control programs in India fail, Mandami
believes, because planners neglect a basic social
reality: poor people depend on large families for
economic survival.
"You think I am poor because I have too many
children," Mandami quotes one Indian farmer
as saying. "If I didn't have my sons, I wouldn't
have half the prosperity I do.
ONLY A FUNDAMENTAL redistribution of
wealth in the world's poorer countries, the polit-
ical demographers maintain, can check the global
population explosion.
World population has tripled in the past 100
years. By the end of this century, it is expected
to double. The shanty towns on the edges of the
great cities in the underdeveloped world now
hold 12 per cent of the world's population.
Although the worldwide fertility rate (the num-
ber of children born per year per 1,000 women
-of child-bearing age) is decreasing, a lowered in-
fant mortality rate has meant a rapid increase
in the number of young women of child-bearing
age. More than 50 per cent of the people in most
of the developing countries are now under 18.
For most of the poor in the world, the only way
to increase earning power and "Social security"
is to have many children.
SOME GOVERNMENTS are resorting to
stringent measures to control birth rates. In
Singapore's large families are given low prior-
ity in the assignment of housing; and tax exemp-
tions end with the third child as do free maternity
care in hospitals and maternity leave for work-
ing mothers.
In many countries, the political demographers
charge, family planning policy is determined less
by concern for people's welfare than by the labor
requirements of industry.
Indonesia was content with its galloping birth
rate (3.3 per cent) with new emphasis on capital-
intensive industries like oil and mining the
need for cheap labor has declined and family
planning programs have been introduced.
<esg:sia as ':.':s'a'::.sssistg sa.:':.'
... planners neglect a basic
social reality: poor people de-
pend on large families for sur-
vival."
IN JAPAN, on the other hand, birth control has
been successful to the point of threatening a labor
shortage, one reason for Japan's high wage rate.
Recently an "abortion paradise", Japan is con-
sidering a strict anti-abortion law.
Without exception, the countries of highest
population growth have the majority of their
populations living in extreme poverty. Colom-
bia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mexico, the Philip-
pines and Thailand all had population growth
rates of over 3 percent in 1972. In contrast, West-
ern Europe, Japan, the United States and the
Soviet Union all had growth rates of 1 percent
or less.
CHINA IS OFTEN cited as having performed
a demographic miracle, reducing its growth rate
from 2.5 percent before the revolution to 1.6 per-
cent (1973) under .the Communist government.
China has combined a rigorous control program-
propaganda, free contraceptives and abortions,
heavy pressure for late marriage and the two-
child family-with a steadily rising standard of
lising.
The United Nations, declaring 1974 "world
population year", has inaugurated a massive
campaign, through its Fund for Population Activi-
ties, to educate people on the threat to world
food supplies and global political stability which
comes with unchecked increases in populati i.
To the "new breed" of population experts, this
attempt to control population by promoting con-
traception, while leaving basic social and eco-
nomic factors untouched, is like using a tea-
spoon to stop a flood.
Alan Miller teaches in the College of Natural
Resources at the University of California, Berke-
ley. Copyright, Pacific News Service, 1974.