Potholes: Health indicators of the city streets

By Emily DeMarco | PublicSource | Nov. 23, 2012

Jessica Ferrell knows the danger of potholes. She fell twice because of the same one: Once when she was pregnant, then again when she was carrying her newborn baby in a sling across her chest. 

She wrapped her arms around her son to protect him, but injured her leg in the second fall. In April 2009, she reported the pothole near Smithfield Street and Seventh Avenue to the city’s 311 Response Center. It was filled within five workdays.

“I don’t think it should take an accident to fix it,” said the 32-year-old hairdresser.

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* I wrote about how I reported this story for Uplink, a publication of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). At IRE's annual conference in 2013, I gave a presentation on using complaint data to find stories.