Fed Up By LA Pothole, Arnold Schwarzenegger Fixes It Himself

A fed-up Arnold Schwarzenegger donned the role of the 'Tarminator' taking matters into his own hands on Tuesday and filled a giant pothole that had been plaguing his Los Angeles neighborhood for weeks.

The former California governor shared a video on Twitter of him and two other men using packaged concrete to repair the road in the Brentwood area set to the sound of some funky tunes. “Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it." Schwarzenegger tweeted. The Austrian-born star, who was California's 38th governor from 2003 to 2011, said he'd rather directly address the issue at hand than fret about it. "I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it," he said. "Here you go."

The 75-year-old decked out in work boots, a leather jacket, and shades — shoveled the blacktop across the street before using a cold patch and drizzling some dirt over the surface to seal the work. A woman drove past the actor and thanked him for getting his hands dirty. In the adjacent clip, Schwarzenegger was seen filling in the pothole with his associates, while passersby thanked him for his efforts. "You have to do it yourself - this is crazy - for three weeks I've been waiting for this hole to be closed," the Hollywood star told a driver who slowed down to commend him on his efforts.

According to CBS News, Los Angeles and much of Southern California have been dealing with potholes after the severe winter storms inundated streets and freeways with a historic amount of rain. According to city leaders, residents have submitted 19,000 pothole repair requests since December 2022. Officials said they filled 17,000 of them by early April.

"City workers are pulling out all the stops, but not just to repair every pothole that is reported. They are also being proactive by driving across the city throughout this district and all others to assess the condition of our streets and identify and repair the damage right away," Mayor Karen Bass said during a recent news conference. The former governor said that he had waited three weeks for it to be filled before taking matters into his own hands. Schwarzenegger is no stranger to manual labor, long before making his mark in Hollywood with fellow bodybuilder Franco Columbu in 1968 a few years before his role in “Pumping Iron” launched him into international stardom. 

Last week, Mayor Karen Brass announced a plan to fix what she called an unprecedented number of damaged streets across Los Angeles caused by historic rainfall. Since Dec. 30, Los Angeles has received 19,692 service requests for repairs, and as of April 6, crews had filled at least 17,549 potholes, officials said.