Can You Find a Pothole Bigger Than This One on Northeast 21st Avenue?

LOCATION: Northeast 21st Avenue, between Crane and Mason streets

SUBMITTED BY: Chris Capretto

HOW HE FOUND IT: Capretto has long been frustrated by a short stretch of blacktop. Atop Alameda Ridge, where roads vanish and reappear like phantom ships, 21st Avenue runs for just two blocks before abruptly veering west in a blind turn to become Crane Street.

The road is short, but also nasty and brutish: “It’s a disaster,” Capretto says. He sent Hole Patrol a photo of the most prominent pothole—he’s helpfully crouching next to it, gesturing down—but it’s one of half a dozen on the block. “They patch it periodically,” Capretto says, “but the patches wear out after a few months of rain.”

The street’s condition, along with the blind curve that Capretto considers a menace, inspires him every so often to inquire with the Portland Bureau of Transportation about closing it to car traffic. He sent WW his most recent email correspondence, from April 2020. “Several vehicles speed through this intersection and the two blocks north of it on their way to Prescott,” he wrote to PBOT. “There are several families with small children along this route. I propose that the intersection is made into a dead end bike pass-through for the safety of the neighborhood.”

An engineer’s report provided to WW by the bureau shows that a city review of records showed no crashes on the block. “During my investigation, the intersection seemed to be performing adequately, an engineer wrote. “I did not recommend closing the streets as requested.”

CURRENT STATUS: It’s still open to traffic, and the pothole is filled with rainwater.

This pothole now advances to the Hole Patrol Winner’s Bracket. Each week in March and perhaps April, WW will select another reader-submitted pothole to move into the Winner’s Bracket, where it will be evaluated by our crack team of asphalt researchers using a proprietary methodology (we’ll probably measure it). The person who submits the city’s biggest pothole will receive a splendid prize. Send your entries to newstips@wweek.com.