See this everywhere – often the streets have been built-up too high and really require re-grading.

Drainage is not rocket science – water flows downhill. Even when done correctly, initially, repaving and patching can and do change flows. Unfortunately, it's cheaper to just add another layer of asphalt than it is to remove / “rotomill” the old layers before doing so, so drivers win and pedestrians lose.

As for the rain garden, it's both a design and a maintenance issue. By design, their whole concept is to slow down the water. Unfortunately, slow water results in a quicker build up of debris, be it trash or leaves, and requires ongoing maintenance to function properly. That'll be the challenge with seeing rain gardens used, properly, in other installations – maintenance is always a matter of budget and priorities.

You should also ask why there curb extensions were not built along the Chestnut side of City Garden. The draft Gateway Mall Master Plan from June 2009 clearly shows plans for curb extensions along Chestnut on page 24. Then again, page 36 of the same document shows City Garden as built.

As silly as this sounds, it is examples like this and people sharing them (like you) that helps to keep the 'obvious' fresh in our mind. There are so many complexities to our infrastructure, mistakes like this are simply going to happen. I hope it gets fixed soon!

Steve, FYI, the word “it's” (with an apostrophe) is not possessive. It stands for “it is”. If it doesn't make sense as “it is” then it's incorrect. When the sentence is: “…has been popular since its inception…” the its does not have apostrophe. Don't mean to be the grammar police on you but it might help polish up your entries a bit.