Dylan Murray
In an attempt to make his community safer, Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to fill what he believed was a pothole on a street near his home in Brentwood, California.
The former republican Governor of California took to social media to post about him filling the supposed pothole outside his home, something that he said was a long time coming.
“Today, after the whole neighbourhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it,” Arnold explained in a post on X (formerly Twitter) last year.
“I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it.”
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Arnold's post has amassed over 62k likes and nearly 11 million impressions, with the former US Governor's actions being well-received by the general public.
Potholes are a big problem worldwide, but their sheer regularity in California is quite impressive, with thousands of formal requests to fill potholes being sent to the city of Los Angeles every year.
However, despite doing what he believed was best for him and his community, it turns out that the dip that Arnold filled in was not a pothole but a 'service trench' that was there deliberately to benefit the company working near that road.
For this reason, the city of Los Angeles was less than pleased with Arnold’s actions, with a spokesperson with the Los Angeles Department of Public Works speaking to NBC News to set the story straight regarding Arnold’s repairs.
The spokesperson explained why the service trench exists, saying it “relates to active, permitted work being performed at the location by SoCal Gas, who expects the work to be completed by the end of May.”
The LA Department of Public Works spokesperson continued: “As is the case with similar projects impacting City streets, SoCal Gas will be required to repair the area once their work is completed."
While it may seem like Arnold’s attempt to help his community was in vain, a statement from SoCal Gas proved to be rather complimentary of Arnold’s work, with a spokesperson of their company releasing a statement regarding the service trench following Arnold’s social media post.
“We did leave the patch that Governor Schwarzenegger applied, however, yesterday our crews went back to the site and we used special equipment to go over the patch to make it all stronger,” the SoCal Gas spokesperson explained.
In response to this statement, Arnold tied the story up with a bow with a follow-up post that read: “Teamwork. Happy to help speed this up, and thanks to the crew for pumping up my fix.”