Hillcrest student sick of poor street maintenance

Laura Davidson is a student in Hillcrest who is fed up with the state of her street. The quality of paths, bus stops, street signs and general upkeep in her neighbourhood has declined in recent years and she’s quite simply had enough.

“Things around here just seem to get worse and worse,” the 19-year-old says.

Laura moved from Tamahere on the city outskirts  to the bustling student area where she now lives so that she could study a combined business and law degree at Waikato University, just down the road from her home on Hogan Street. Though the area was once filled with orchards, over the last 50 years it has turned into a  concrete jungle where litter, graffiti, and poor maintenance wreaks havoc among the tight-knit student flats.

When Laura walks her street she has to be careful she doesn’t hurt herself from the potential hazards she comes across on her neighbourhood pathways. Overgrowth from bushes and trees tend to take up large sections of the pathway in some areas, which have caught her off guard once or twice.

“A few times when I’ve been distracted by my phone or something, I’ve been whacked in the head from the overgrowth on the pathway. The council should probably stay on top of that kind of thing before you can’t walk on it at all.”

Obstructions along the pathways in Laura’s area are not just at eye level, but right beneath her feet.

Once when Laura was walking to the bus stop yet another council blunder gave her grief. A section of the pathway just before the bus stop was cracked  by a tree root.

“I almost face-planted on to the concrete, luckily I was with a friend and she stopped me from getting injured.

But it’s not just the quality of pathways that is causing concern in Laura’s neighbourhood. The bus stop is not only surrounded by uplifted concrete but also has smashed windows and is covered in graffiti.

“It’s not the nicest thing for people to sit in each morning; it makes our neighbourhood look like the ghetto.”

The bus stop is situated on the corner of Hogan and Greensboro streets, but a lot of people would not know that because the intersection has no street signs.

“Anybody new to the area who could be visiting might get lost since there’s no street sign. You’d think the council would consider that to be important but I guess not.”

Though there’s a lack of street signs and smooth pavement on Laura’s street, there is also  an abundance of rubbish.

“There’s so many cats in this neighbourhood. They get into people’s rubbish and spread it out across the street. I pick it up when I can but I’ve seen it end up down the drains in the gutters, that can’t be good for the environment.”

Not only do cats spread litter in Hogan Street, the smokers are even worse.

A few houses down from Laura’s place is a big yellow block of flats filled with yellow-fingered smokers that flick their butts all over the street. Smokers who can’t smoke inside sit on the curb each time they light up, and always leave their cigarette

butts spread across the pathway, it’s even common to find empty smoke cartons scattered about.

“It’s worse in the summer time. It looks like confetti’s been scattered around  from all the cigarette stubs they leave on the ground. It’s just a fire waiting to happen.”

As council elections near, Laura hopes that upcoming candidates will do something about the upkeep of student streets. While it may seem like a small issue to some, it’s an everyday nuisance for the residents of Hogan Street.