A Compton couple frustrated with the damage potholes were doing to their cars decided to take matters into their own hands and fix the potholes on their own dime. Ted Chen reports for the NBC4 News on March. 7, 2024.
After multiple popped tires, Alex and Daisy De La Rosa decided they would take matters into their own hands, one pothole at a time.
The couple from Compton began to patch the several potholes around their city, on their own time and buying their own money on asphalt material.
According to Daisy, the amount of potholes was so bad that it began to cost them their living.
“There goes a new tire, there goes what we just worked for,” said Daisy. “The amount of repair done to our cars is enormous. We actually bought this vehicle recently within a month and a half we have with this car we’ve changed three sets of tires already,”
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Driving from pothole to pothole across the city is no easy task, but that has not stopped the couple who have been getting support from people in Compton driving by and seeing what they’re doing.
“We have to do something to protect ourselves someone could hit that pothole and hit a child walking across the street or run into someone’s home,” said Compton resident, Dhahabu Malloy.
Daisy said that they attempted to reach the city for help before taking on the trouble for themselves but got no response.
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The City of Compton responded with a statement. “While we budget for street repairs annually, our Public Works Department is currently critically understaffed and efforts are underway to recruit the vacant positions. Through these staffing shortages, the City's Street Division team is still actively working to infill potholes on a monthly basis.”
While the couple isn’t profiting from the work, Daisy says as long as the community continues to support, they’ll continue patching up potholes around the city.
“It’s not just us anymore, the community is involved,” said Daisy.
