MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — Diondra Henderson is getting tired of the potholed roads in her Muskegon neighborhood.
“It’s terrible,” Henderson said. “You know you put money into making your house and neighborhood look good, your lawn looks nice, but the roads are terrible.”
Her neighbor, Delicia Nash, has lived near the corner of Riordan and Barney for 47 years.
An area that says it used to have welcoming and accessible streets.
“We rode our bikes around here,” Nash said. “We did double dutch in the street.”
Now, it’s full of potholes.
The cars we saw all day at the intersection tread carefully.
“As traffic keeps coming up behind us, they have to slow down and figure out which way they want to go,” Nash said in an interview near the intersection. “We really started tearing up people’s patios because we made a street out of them. There’s nothing left for you to ride on.”
In 2022, 13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke with the former Muskegon Heights city manager. To rebuild the 50 miles of road in the city, he said it would take more than $100 million and 100 years to complete.
A dedicated road tax in Muskegon Heights generates about $360,000 annually.
We reached out and stopped by Muskegon Heights City Hall to speak with the current city manager, but they were not available to speak with us Monday afternoon regarding the status of Riordan and Barney.
For Nash, he hopes the city can figure something out soon.
He blames deteriorating roads for some of his recent car repairs.
“My repairs on my car have cost me $2,500 just to replace struts, replace struts, replace struts, replace axles. You can never keep up with repairs,” Nash said.
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