Riviera Drive neighbors experience the deteriorating street condition every day.  Unfortunately, the City has no plans to resurface the street for years even though the Riviera resurfacing been sitting on the City’s list of “priority” capital improvement projects for quite some time.  The City’s recently approved 3-year capital improvements budget has no funding budgeted for Riviera Drive.  City staff say that priorities are determined in part by the amount of demonstrated “community support” for a capital improvement.  We received “zero” points in this community support category!  So let’s start demonstrating our support to have Riviera Drive repaved as soon as possible!  The more residents complain about the street condition, the more likely will get the street repaired sooner.  Staff mentioned that priorities can be revised during the course of the 3-year capital improvement plan’s implementation.

If you are tired of having a lousy street in front of your nice home, if you’re agitated that all of nearby Glenwood and many other San Rafael neighborhoods have already been repaved, there are multiple things you can do.

• Visit San Rafael's Report an Issue webpage
• Click the Fix Pothole/Road Conditions
• Click the  SeeClickFix Pothole/Road Conditions at the bottom of the page
• Complete the required information

A few residents have already started reporting the Riviera street condition this way, but we need many more people to submit a request to repair.  Squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Another helpful thing you can do is write a letter requesting that Riviera Drive get repaired to the Director of Public Works and copy the Mayor, City Council and City Manager.  A stack of such letters can be very effective and the pols pay attention to these if they get a lot of them on a single issue. 

• Our City elected leaders and the City Manager can be found here:  City of San Rafael. 
• Our City Council Member : maribeth.bushey@cityofsanrafael.org
• Our Mayor : kate.colin@cityofsanrafael.org

The City should understand that the existing conditions of Riviera Drive are:

• hazardous to the many children (and adults) that ride their bikes on the street as the numerous crevasses and divots in the street can easily flip a bike over and the rider onto hard pavement
• the crevasses and potholes make it difficult and dangerous for bikers and elderly walkers to quickly get out of the way of oncoming cars, especially where the medians provide little room to maneuver
• flooding is a seasonal problem during heavy rains that limits and sometimes cuts off access to the street, which can be a big problem if someone has a health emergency and first responders can’t easily get to someone’s home
• Riviera Drive will continue to deteriorate, creating more dangerous conditions, and increasing the ultimate cost to the City to fix
• the hazardous conditions, if continued to be neglected by the City, create liabilities and exposure to the City in the event of an accident caused by the poor road conditions

We have our beautiful new median landscaping installed.  The tree removal and sidewalk repair program has been completed on Riviera Drive.  AT&T has completed its undergrounding of fiber on the street as well.  NOW IS THE IDEAL TIME TO MAKE THE PERMANENT RIVIERA DRIVE REPAIRS!