At the moment, it is impossible to take a “quick jaunt” down North Gay Street in Mount Vernon – those that try may find the experience a rough one, and more than a bit rough on their car as well.

Gay Street is one of Ohio’s brick city streets. Mount Vernon, with its 7 remaining miles of brick, was one of the cities profiled in a recent Columbus Dispatch article which also discussed the experiences of city officials in Athens, Bexley, and the German Village neighborhood of Columbus in dealing with these reminders of an earlier era. City leaders almost uniformly acknowledge the advantages of brick streets, including both natural traffic calming and aesthetics. At the same time, these officials also deal with ongoing issues of maintenance and repair, as well as the question of whether to keep brick on heavily-traveled thoroughfares. The latter is one of the current issues in Mount Vernon where Gay Street, a brick street which carries a load of 8,000 vehicles daily, may be covered with asphalt.

Of course, other communities across the country deal with the same issues. In Crafton, Pennsylvania, the city council declined to approve a plan which would move parking from one side of a street to the other to hopefully reduce the need for expensive maintenance. At the same time, a 2003 article in USA Today looked at several communities where brick is either being preserved or is actually being added to city streets.

Like any preservation issue, planning is essential to long-term protection. That process is underway in Mount Vernon and in Athens. In Rock Island, Illinois, the city adopted a “Brick Streets Plan,” which analyzes current conditions and sets standards for maintenance and reconstruction.

Photo:  Old Onliner/Creative Commons License