When Grady Pope moved into his home on Ponce De Leon Avenue in the San Jose neighborhood in 2020, he quickly realized that, without a drainage system, heavy rains brought a particular set of challenges in the days that followed.
“I realized I’d moved into a 70-year-old home in an old mid-century neighborhood and some of the neighborhood had drainage and curbs, and some didn’t,” Pope said.
The area that didn’t, including his property, experienced significant flooding after heavy rains, and standing water made the already narrow road even narrower, often leading cars to drive up onto the right-of-way to pass one another.
“When that happens, and it’s raining hard, and they have to get off the road into the right-of-way, I mean, I’ve seen the right-of-way get dug up as deep as my knee,” Pope said.
As a temporary fix, Pope installed reflectors along the perimeter of his yard to show drivers where the road ended and his property began during flooding, but he began reaching out to the City for a more permanent solution.
Standing rainwater and narrow streets often result in torn up right-of-ways as cars are forced onto them to pass by one another on Ponce De Leon Avenue.
Pope said he’d been working with City officials for several years to address this issue, and improvements are now on the horizon. According to City Council Vice President Joe Carlucci, representing District 5, $250,000 has been allocated this year for design and drainage analysis. In total, the project will cost an estimated $2.5 million.
In an e-mail to Resident News, Carlucci wrote: “You know, I think strong neighborhoods start with strong infrastructure, and there’s only a few things more fundamental than making drainage systems work the way they should. In this case, creating new drainage where none currently exists. Projects like this may not always get the most attention, but they make a real difference in protecting home values, improving streets, and strengthening the quality of life in our neighborhoods. My office will continue pushing for the investments needed to build stronger, more resilient neighborhoods for the future.”
Improvements are coming, but with construction expected to begin in 2028, they’re still quite a way off for residents.
Fortunately, the flooding hasn’t been as bad as past years, Pope said, which has made the waiting a little easier.
“Last year and this year, we really didn’t have a lot of tropical storms – when that happens, it gets very frustrating because there’s a lot of water standing on the rights-of-way and [they] get really super, super soft,” Pope said. “So, you know, that hasn’t happened, so it hasn’t been quite as frustrating as it was back when we were having those tropical storms and everything. It’s frustrating, but I’m a pretty patient person and…what can I do? I have to be patient.”