By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

One of the most surprising facts about Somerville is that we have managed to fit 100 miles of paved road inside a city of 4.1 square miles. Combine that with the densest population in New England and our streets get heavy usage. We’ve got 52,500 registered vehicles in Somerville alone using those roads—plus visitors. We also get New England weather, roadways scraped by snowplows, and asphalt-cracking freeze-melt cycles. Combine it all together and what you get is a never-ending fight against potholes. Consider this your clarion call to join us in that battle.

In my 20 years of public service—as an alderman first, and the Mayor—one thing has been consistent: People have always hated potholes. I’m right there with you. They’re bad for cars, bad for bikes and bad for business. If I’m trying to show off parts of our city to companies and nonprofits that might want to move here and bring new jobs with them and I see potholes, it’s like having an acne breakout on the day of your school photo. As a general rule I preach against hatred, but everybody can and should hate potholes.

But one good thing about potholes is that we all agree what to do with them: fix them, and fix them now. So that’s what we strive to do, especially at the end of winter. Right now, we are in the midst of a pothole blitz. We’ve got a hot-top truck and a pothole truck that each hold three tons of asphalt and we’re emptying them every day. The running total through March at the time I’m writing this is 573 potholes filled this month, bringing our total for the year up to 940. Our total for all of 2015 was 646 potholes filled. So a round of applause for our DPW crews who are hitting our streets hard.

This is where you come into the picture. We can only fix the problems we know about. We do scan for potholes, but this time of year they sprout up like mushrooms—on our 100 miles of roadway. So we ask you to take on the simplest form of 21st century civic responsibility: If you see a pothole, call it in. This is so much easier than the civic duties past generations had like helping to construct the new one-room school house or jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to help the bucket brigade put out a fire. So give it a try.

You can just call, tweet or Facebook our 311 service center, which is always ready to take your call so our DPW can spring into action. And as of this week, it’s even easier to report to 311. Just download our new, much improved 311 app (for iOS or Android) and send us a picture of the offending pothole and its location with just a few taps. We need you to be our eyes. You see a pothole, report that pothole. That’s how things get fixed.

Often, I use this space to write about complicated challenges facing the city. But basic customer services like pothole repairs are just as important when it comes to local government. That day-to-day work may often go uncelebrated and undiscussed. But DPW is out there year-round cleaning up graffiti, fixing cracked sidewalk panels, trimming downed tree limbs, replacing missing or damaged signs, repairing broken playground equipment, tending to our garden beds and green spaces citywide. This too, you can be a part of.

Basically, if you see something that needs to be fixed, tell us and we’ll fix it. That’s the meat and potatoes part of civic life. We fix thousands of these issues every year. Our pledge is we’ll take care of every single item on our list. You alert us. We take action. You should be given a clear timetable for when a public works issue will get fixed and, if it isn’t fixed inside that timetable, you should be given a clear reason why there’s a delay. We hold ourselves to that standard and we want you to hold us to that standard.

Don’t be a stranger. Take ownership of your community. Put the city to work for you. We really are here to serve—with you and for you.