San Jose Near Bottom in Bay Area for Street Repairs: Audit

San Jose ranks near the bottom of the list in the Bay Area when it comes to street repairs. And according to the city auditor, it’s going to take millions of dollars to make the necessary repairs.

Puddles popped up on Wilsham Drive after Monday’s rain.

The city auditor has labeled Wilsham Drive as “failed pavement,” meaning it doesn’t get much worse than this.

There has been no adequate maintenance on Wilsham since 1997.

In fact, in her report, the auditor said San Jose spends the least amount of money on streets repair among all local municipalities — roughly $20 to 30 million a year.

And it’s going to take half a billion dollars to bring things up to par in the city.

The auditor released her report Monday to the city’s transportation committee, which says it has been aware of the problem for years. The key to finding the cash may be asking resident to dig deeper.

City councilman Ash Kalra is not ruling out taxes, state and federal resources or bond measures.

The city auditor says if the city doesn’t aggressively begin making repairs, most streets in San Jose will look like Wilsham Drive.

And the neighbors here say nobody in San Jose would want that.

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