Wealthy LA residents ask wealthier neighbours to help fix potholes

Residents of the staggeringly wealthy Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles are so tired of driving over potholes that they have asked the city council of the equally plush Beverly Hills next door to annex their community in an effort to get them fixed.

Holmby Hills is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the world, including Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion. But residents say that despite paying a great deal of property tax to the City of Los Angeles, they are not getting the services they deserve.

"Holmby Hills pays millions of dollars to Los Angeles in property taxes, and we're getting back thousands of dollars in services," resident William Fleischman, who is leading the campaign, told the Los Angeles Times.

Mr Fleischman has asked Beverly Hills City Council to consider a proposal to take in 40 or so members of the Holmby Hills Homeowners' Association. He said he realised that, in a city with crushing deficits, his group may come across as "spoiled brats". But he insisted the annexation proposal was "our only option after 20 years of frustration".

The Los Angeles Department of Public Works says it repairs about 250,000 potholes annually on the basis of need – regardless of the wealth of the neighbourhood.