Between 3rd and 4th

3rd Avenue is the beginning. I lived on Third Avenue from 2008 to 2011. We moved to 3rd Avenue because we had farm life, and the acre of land was what we could afford at the time. One day the city of Hesperia began construction of a water reclamation basin behind our house, between 3rd and 4th Avenue. The construction was fast and seemed to have been completed as soon as I realized it was there. At that time there was no fence around it so my sisters and I would go inside it and explore the deep tunnels. 

Not too long after it rained. As the water came down from the sky we watched as the basin overflowed and eroded our backyard, the field next to our house, and 3rd Avenue, leaving behind an approximate five-foot ravine stretching all the way down to Hesperia Road. Separating our house on 3rd Avenue from our neighbors to the left of us. 

This separation would cause terror in the middle of the night. My Mother would wake up and see headlights from vehicles appearing from the city’s failure. There was no protection from the ravine provided by the city of Hesperia. Eventually, city officials thought it would be wise to put simple “Road closed” and “Detour” signs on the edge of the ravine. They did not account for the darkness that the nights of a city without streetlights have and the curve of the street that ends right before my house. Many drove into the ravine, thankfully there were no fatalities. 

Because of the intensity of the failure, it took the city years to repair the road. They received $1 million from the state, but that did not go to those affected. To those that accidentally drove into the ravine at night because they couldn't see. To those that lived between 3rd and 4th Avenue that were pressured to move because the city needed their land to fix their failure. Instead, the city kept concrete guard rails on roads to keep the dirt from blowing into the street and refused to bring light to the darkness surrounding their failure.