New York City streets are notorious for defects and foibles. The website for the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) has pages devoted to reporting problems, including cave-ins, hummocks, ponding, missing manhole covers and pot holes.Driving through the city, over grates and grills, around barriers and pylons, can be a disquieting experience.It’s not just the hazards, but the mottled surface, the cracks and excrescence.And how it seems to have always been here, not senescent but permanent. Sometimes it just needs to have its contiguity checked.