Atop the list is 45th Street at Wallingford, and the cracks and bumps prove it.

"It's really rough over there," said a neighborhood resident. "You don't want to be driving too quickly especially if your shocks are bad."

Parts of 45th haven't been paved in more than 40 years. That's why Nickels named it the dirtiest of his dirty dozen.

"This street is even meaner than the original dirty dozen," Nickels said.

Last month, the mayor asked everybody in the city to nominate the worst streets in the city. He got more than 700 responses.

West Seattle's California Avenue SW came in second. And NE 65th Avenue in Ravenna came in third.

That doesn't surprise those who work there.

"With the roads being messed up nobody can get down here," a Ravenna resident said.

The Dirty Dozen list is part of the mayor's push to pass a 20-year roads levy. He says it would eliminate trouble spots like the ones on the list as part of a $500 million maintenance backlog.

"The other 700, 688 projects lined up, we can't even make a dent in those if we don't have additional resources lined up," Nickels said.

But you get to pay for the fixes. Nickels wants to increase property taxes and impose new parking and employee taxes.

He says the city needs the money to make up for major cuts -- partly a result of initiatives that took away motor vehicle and vehicle license fees.

The city's already set aside $21 million to fix all dirty dozen. The other 688 projects will be left up to voters.

Work to repave the dirty dozen will begin this fall.

For More Information:

www.seattle.gov