Actor and the former Republican governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger made headlines earlier this week for filling a “giant pothole” he claimed the city had neglected to fix in a timely manner, but now city officials insist it wasn’t a pothole at all.
“This location is not a pothole,” a spokesperson for the City of Los Angeles told NBC. “It’s a service trench that 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.”
“As is the case with similar projects impacting City streets, SoCal Gas will be required to repair the area once their work is completed,” the spokesperson told the news outlet.
Schwarzenegger had previously posted a video of himself filling the “pothole” in his Los Angeles neighborhood.
“Today, after the whole neighborhood 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,” he wrote on Twitter alongside the video. “I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go.”
Today, after the whole neighborhood 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. I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go. pic.twitter.com/aslhkUShvT
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) April 11, 2023
In the clip, a neighbor stopped her car to thank him for taking action. “You’re welcome,” the 75-year-old “Terminator” alum can be heard saying to the woman. “You have to do it yourself. This is crazy. For three weeks I’ve been waiting for this hole to be closed.”
Schwarzenegger’s spokesperson Daniel Ketchell said that neighborhood residents made repeated requests to fix that pothole and others, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass addressed the pothole situation during a press conference last week. She said city workers have been working hard to fix the roadways, which were damaged by winter storms.
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“City workers are pulling out all the stops, but not to just prepare for every pothole that is reported, but also to be proactive,” Bass said. “That means driving around the city, throughout this district and all others, to assess the conditions of our streets and identify and repair the damage right away.”
The Bureau of Street Services said it received 19,279 requests since December to fix potholes throughout the city and has repaired 17,132.