Three cheers for Dawn Turner Rice’s column today.

I grew up not far from Pembroke Township. The area has been getting screwed for years by the county and the state. Promises, promises, but nothing ever happens. I was suspicious when Governor Blagojevich made more promises in 2003, and was hoping to do a follow-up this spring. Rice beat me to it, but I’m still going back this spring.

Driving through town on a rainy day was what I imagined a drive through hell would be like. The roads turned to quicksand. For miles and miles, my car’s tires would struggle to maintain traction. I could only pray that I wouldn’t spin out into a ditch. […]

Every few years or so, politicians and others make their way to Pembroke, which is about 50 miles south of Chicago, to shake their heads and say something like: “Gee, it’s so hard to believe people live like this in [you fill in the year.] Many of the roads are unpaved. Too many of the residents are unemployed. There are no natural gas lines. The water tastes toxic. And some of the homes have dirt floors.”[…]

[In July of 2003] Team Illinois began. Designed by Secretary Carol Adams of the Illinois Department of Human Services, Team Illinois was expected to revitalize four impoverished Illinois communities, including Pembroke.

Adams compared the effort to programs such as Habitat for Humanity or an old-fashioned barn-raising.

“It is important that this not be some flash in the pan,” she said.

In terms of road-raising, since then, the Illinois Department of Transportation has paved 4 miles of roads, put up road signs and completed a 26-mile roadside cleanup, according to Adams’ office. But Pembroke’s road commissioner, Albert Sutton, said Team Illinois came out and got IDOT to lay gravel down along about 2.5 miles of road.

“They haven’t paved anything,” he said. “And then they paid for it out of funds we already had. They promised to bring funds, but nothing has happened. We’ve gotten nothing but promises, and we still have over 70 miles of roads that need help.” […]

Hopkins Park Mayor Jones “Jon” Dyson told me he believes the roads soon will be getting better. He said IDOT had come to town recently with truckloads of gravel and more promises.

I don’t know about Dyson, but I’d have to see it to believe it.

Gravel ain’t gonna make it. The soil is so sandy that the gravel quickly sinks out of sight and disappears. I don’t care how many truckloads of gravel the state hauls, it’s not going to work.