Well the above title word on Hellhole could be replaced by another word also called something hole, yet I will leave that to the imagination to complete as we are actually a decent bunch, and mom would give us soap in the mouth if we do not behave.
Open up any community page, scroll through the articles and you are bound to be met by pictures of the ever increasing potholes in our town, and despite the best efforts of various organisations and community groups the problem does not seem to be getting any better, in fact it feels like a cracking dam wall where the efforts to stay ahead of the game of fixing these potholes cannot be plugged by the efforts of those in the community.
This is in fact a dangerous spiral, which on the surface appears to be an irritation of damaged vehicles, drivers appearing to be driving under the influence as they swerve and manoeuvre these gaping gaps on the road, and traffic slowing down at the most inconvenient of places during heavy traffic caused by these potholes on our roads especially at intersections, yet underneath this trend is the fact that we are spiralling to what is called broken window syndrome.
Broken window syndrome is a concept in criminology that suggests that small acts of vandalism or disorder can lead to more serious crimes. The idea is that if a window is broken and not repaired, it sends the signal that no one cares about the property and that further vandalism or crime is acceptable. This can lead to a spiral of deterioration and increased crime in the area. The theory was first proposed by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in a 1982 article.
The ever increasing potholes is definitely a part of a larger threat to our town, a town that we so dearly love and where we have spent our hard earned monies to buy homes, invest in businesses and built our lives, and left unchecked we will have a downward spiralling effect on our community.
For anybody that travelled the national N12 road through towns such as Wolmaransstad and have seen the absolute disgrace of the condition of the main road going through this otherwise community focussed town (that Major should hang his head in shame), it is evident that unless we continue to drive the upkeep of our roads and our immediate environment, the roads of Potchefstroom would soon be just as bad, and as we reach that point the immediate society would be impacted negatively on other fronts, such as crime and deterioration of our community.
Broken windows, such as potholes, rubbish being dumped, grass not being cut, gardens not being maintained, leads to a general sense of hopelessness among those living in the community, a decline in property value, and an increase in crime and disorder, which we are already experiencing in several spots across town. Indeed we can slowly witness the investments moving away from the traditional CBD and surrounding areas, with more developments now taking place towards the Vyfhoek area than the traditional bustling centres of yesteryear.
Leaving this task to our council seems to be a futile dream, and the reality is that each of us in Potchefstroom needs to ensure our immediate environment is kept in good shape, if we do not ten our community will start falling apart, that is the factual truth, politicians are not going to help us here, we are going to help ourselves.
Here are some actions that we should support or do in our community, to combat the spiral and to protect our town:
We should wherever possible support the initiatives by the various businesses and private organisations and business chambers in their efforts to fix our infrastructure and upkeep of our town, such as potholes, an example of such is the Potchefstroom Chamber of Commerce.
We should take responsibility for our immediate area, such as cutting the grass which council fails to address, litter in the roads, removal of dilapidated signs and boards that do not belong, in general keep our own backyard in order, plus take over some of the neglected council duties as the current challenges will see council take years to operate efficiently.
Our security companies should continue to assist us in ensuring that loitering is monitored and dealt with effectively, dealing with "minor" crimes such as the continued wave of garden equipment theft, lights and cameras being stolen, and the petty theft that we are not even reporting to our police stations anymore.
Our estate agents and landlords renting commercial properties should not fall into the trap of renting out property to low quality businesses just in order not to have a premises being empty, these types of businesses degrades a business environment in a rapid fashion.
We should support the individuals and groups in our community that offers their services to initiatives such as neighbourhood watches, community forums and the like, by supporting these individuals we build a cohesiveness that feeds back into society overall.
What do you think we as a community should also do to combat the spiralling deterioration of our infrastructure and service delivery?
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