For the past three weeks, Compton residents Alex and Daisy De La Rosa have been taking the city’s long-standing pothole problems into their own hands — literally. Now after more than three dozen DIY repairs, Compton officials have ordered them to stop.
On Monday, the couple received a formal cease and desist letter notifying them that they were breaking city code by making unauthorized repairs without permits.
But they say they’ve been so upset with the glaring amount of potholes that they’ll continue despite the threat of legal action.
A few weeks ago, it was the last straw. A pothole right by the De La Rosa’s driveway took out a tire on their car.
“It’s not just been once or twice, it’s been a toll on our cars for five years now,” Daisy said.
The two are couriers who spend a large portion of their time driving on Compton’s streets. Daisy says it felt like they were working just to keep their car in good shape. So after that last tire pop, they went to Home Depot to figure out how to fill in the pothole. Alex looked up how to do a fix called an asphalt black top repair and bought the supplies.
“He literally went in blind,” Daisy said.
Since then, they’ve filled in 38 potholes, spending $700 of their own money and gathering donations through GoFundMe. In total, Daisy estimates they’ve spent $2,000 so far.
The pothole problem in Compton has been going on for years. Among the many complaints, residents called upon the city to prioritize fixing roads after it received a state housing grant in 2022.
Since starting the DIY pothole repairs, people have showered them with thanks online and suggested other streets in Compton with potholes to fix. Daisy and Alex have even had companies reach out to help provide supplies.
With so much public support behind them, the couple feels Compton could have taken a different approach than sending them a cease and desist letter.
“I feel sad. I feel frustrated,” Alex said. “Because instead of [saying] ‘Well, thank you for your help, thank you for what you guys are doing,’ they come up with another thing.”
At a city council meeting last Tuesday, residents spoke up in the public comment section, with one saying it was a “crying shame” for citizens to have to fix potholes. Compton City Manager Willie Hopkins responded by saying:
“I want you to know, I spend a tremendous amount of time driving around this city, so I understand there’s potholes,” Hopkins said. “I need you to understand that it didn't get that way overnight, and obviously we’re not going to fix it overnight.”
Hopkins agreed that it’s embarrassing for citizens to do the city’s work, but added, “What they're doing is illegal.”
He said there are liability concerns to contend with, and that if someone gets hurt or their property is damaged in one of the De La Rosa’s pothole fixes, that could open both parties up to legal issues.
In a statement, the city said it “understands the frustration felt by our residents and share their concerns regarding the state of our roads, however, we urge caution and emphasize we do not want residents risking their personal safety.”
Just as in other cities, Compton has a claim form anyone can fill out to get reimbursed for damages they incurred to personal property because of the road.
If you do this, temper your expectations. Some people have won, but cases can take multiple months or years. It could end up getting denied if you’re unable to prove the city should have been aware of the pothole.
If your car gets damaged by a pothole in the city of L.A., read our guide here.
“Our Public Works Department is currently critically understaffed, and efforts are underway to recruit vacant positions. Despite these staffing shortages, the city’s Street Division team is still actively working to fill potholes on a monthly basis," the statement added.
The city also stressed the importance of “leaving road repairs to trained professionals,” and encouraged residents to report road concerns through the city’s official app.
But the De La Rosas say they believe in what they’re doing and see it as the only way to get the city to take action.
“Now they're trying to stop us. Why? Because they feel embarrassed. Because they feel that we have put them on blast,” Daisy said. “So even if it’s filling in a pothole or two and we’re able to bring it into awareness, then we'll go ahead and do that.”
As far as liability and legality are concerned — no. But apart from those, it depends.
Not all cracks in streets are potholes, which means they need a different kind of repair. If the wrong material is used, it could also end up cracking open again and making road damage worse.
The city of Los Angeles has a graphic that explains road damage differences here.
When road damage needs to be fixed, crews first need to assess what caused the problem. As my colleague Jacob Margolis explained, a typical pothole is formed when water gets deep into the asphalt, and begins washing away the sub base. That weakens the road, and when cars drive over it, it breaks down even more. Crews will then come with a big machine to grind down the pothole, fill it in evenly with asphalt and press it tightly with big rollers.
But other cracks and dips in the road can be there because of different reasons. It could be a weakness around the settlement, or a utility trench created by active or recent repairs underground that needs to be filled back in.
For citizen-led fixes, this analysis process gets missed. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger famously got fed up with a “pothole” on his home street in 2023 and filled it in himself. It turned out to be a utility trench from SoCalGas work that needed a permanent fix.
