Brickbat: Road Hard

Oakland residents, fed up with dangerous late-night sideshows where cars do stunts, built their own speed bumps on East 21st Street and 19th Avenue after the city ignored four years of pleas for help. Costing $3,000, these homemade speed bumps stopped the sideshows for eight months, but the city's Department of Transportation removed them for lacking official approval, angering locals who say the city doesn't care about their safety. Previously, the city also removed tire barriers that residents set up to deter sideshows, and though officials say they're working on traffic-calming solutions, residents argue the city's slow response has allowed the dangerous stunts to return, leaving the community frustrated and unsafe.