Mayors don't like to fill potholes. And so the roads collapse...

Potholes in the streets of Rome

An entire road collapsed , a dozen cars engulfed , twenty families forced to abandon their homes. Don't tell me the collapse of the road surface in Rome 's Balduina neighborhood was a fatality; if anything, the miracle is that there were no victims. Cities reduced to sieves, Rome first and foremost, have specific culprits: the mayors . It is they who, for decades, have distorted the duties and responsibilities of public office, erasing routine maintenance from the political agenda.

ALSO READ: Potholes are the cause of one in three accidents. And no one fixes them.

Pothole Emergency in Rome

In Rome, we've had mayors who were brilliant at organizing shows and festivals, even pointless ones, to build an image useful for their national political careers. But they were indifferent to potholes . Like any urban mending project. Potholes are a nuisance; they can't be fixed with a statement to the newspapers or a television appearance. They require daily work, often obscure and silent. Without the immediate dividend of popularity. Potholes don't bring votes; if anything, you risk losing them due to the disruption caused by a construction site. Potholes can't be filled instantly, and this frightens a political class caught up in the present.

Yet potholes are the first priority of any good mayor . People like Dozza in Bologna and La Pira in Florence, figures who also had national ambitions, never let a week go by without inspecting their neighborhoods. Street by street, checking for any signs of subsidence.

(In the image, the sinkhole in the street in the Balduina neighborhood of Rome. Credits: Corriere della Sera )

TO KNOW MORE: Rome's pothole-fighting plan: what if citizens crowdfunded it?

Potholes in Rome

A mayor who doesn't address potholes consistently and even obsessively doesn't deserve his appointment. And over time, he'll only harm his citizens.

ITALY THAT FORGOT MAINTENANCE:

• Rome's pothole-fighting plan: what if citizens crowdfunded it?
• Italy lacks maintenance: 60 percent of old buildings are at serious risk.
• Sinkhole in Florence, the culpable disaster of an Italy now without maintenance