It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WBEZ.

Hey, I'm John Fasiel, and our question this week has a far-flung origin. Max Melgarayho lives in Chicago, but he has family in Lima, Peru.

So he visits from time to time.

When he's there, he likes to stroll through Lima's squares in open-air markets,

sometimes munching on piccarones, these delicious Peruvian donuts.

And he always notices this thing about the streets.

In Lima, the streets are all made out of cement.

That's gray cement concrete, not blacktop asphalt,

which is what the streets in Chicago and most other U.S. cities are paved with.

This gets Max thinking about potholes,

which is something only a Chicagoan would find themselves thinking about while visiting South America.

He notices fewer potholes on the main boulevards of Lima than he does back home.

Eight or nine times a day I hit a pothole.

You kind of get that, the first tire goes in, and then you kind of bounce or jolt and then your rear tire goes in.

So he asked us,

Is asphalt the best choice for Chicago's streets?

This is a question I've had myself.

I'll be driving on the all-concrete Dan Ryan and it's smooth sailing until I get off at literally any exit.

And then...

Pothole City.

You know that old adage that Chicago has two seasons, winter in construction?

Well, despite all the road work, the city has paid out nearly $3 million over the past 10 years to drivers whose cars have been

...