If you live in the city of Pittsburgh, the odds are one in 20 that the street in front of your home will be repaved this year.

Your odds are much better if you share your street with a member of City Council or the Democratic Committee. Three council members and at least 30 committee leaders and members are slated to see parts of their streets, or streets very close to their homes, redone.

That's a product of a decision-making system driven by eyeball evaluations and politics, rather than the computer-driven analysis the city used in the late 1990s. In all, 40 miles of streets are scheduled for paving this spring and summer.

Already stripped down to the base and ready for new pavement is Public Works Director Guy Costa's block of Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill. The block was last resurfaced 30 years ago, he said, though it got a coating of a stopgap material called Nova Chip in 1994.

He said yesterday that he's been hesitant to repave his own street, but it got bad, and he put it at the top of this year's list because the Race for the Cure will traverse it on May 9. Besides, he said, "Why should those who live on that street be penalized because I live on that street?"

In Westwood, Guyland Street starts six houses down Noblestown Road from Councilman Dan Deasy's home. The concrete street, with some gaps between its slabs, is slated to be coated with asphalt.

"There's [Westwood School] on that street. It's a mess," said Mr. Deasy. "So I put it on the list."

Woodbine Street in Stanton Heights also has a concrete section slated for a coat of blacktop. The concrete is cracked in places, and a few football-sized pieces are missing, but it's easily driveable.

Councilman Len Bodack lives on the street, though his house is several blocks from the section to be paved. He said he had no involvement with getting Woodbine on the list, but has "no argument that it needs to be repaved."

Councilwoman Darlene Harris should see her Spring Hill street repaved -- a result that stems from her efforts two years ago as a Democratic Committee ward chair.

Buente Street's tilt directs runoff into several homes, including Ms. Harris', said Mr. Costa.

"I was involved in getting it on the schedule in 2005," Ms. Harris said. It was postponed until this year. She was elected to council in November, and her street made the list without any new intervention by her, she said.

Democratic Committee leaders and members endorse candidates in primaries and choose party nominees in special elections. Some say they use their influence to get streets on the list.

"I submitted a list of specific streets that needed to be paved," said Leah Kirkland, a committee member in the 12th Ward whose mother, Jacqueline Fielder, is the ward chair and whose father, Aubrey Kirkland, is a committee member. The streets on which her mother and father live are among 10 slated for resurfacing in the ward, which centers on Lincoln-Lemington and Larimer.

Ms. Kirkland is now a council candidate.

John Shields downplayed the role of his position as a Democratic Committee member in getting his street on the list. The dead-end section of Goodman Street in Swisshelm Park that is to get fresh pavement is cracked, but not badly pothole-ridden.

It serves 24 houses.

The section "hasn't been paved in, whew, 20 years," said Mr. Shields.

"Why Goodman's on there, I don't know," said Council President Doug Shields -- no relation to John. "Somebody had to do the analysis." He said the Public Works Department does "a pretty good job" of picking streets.

The department prepares a list based on observations by its division chiefs, said Mr. Costa. Calls to the city's 311 response line are factored in, as are lists submitted by council members.

"I would argue that it's not political. I haven't seen the paving list yet," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. "Council members obviously lobby me for streets, and they obviously lobby others for streets as well. ... That, as far as I see it, will never change."

The city's computerized Pavement Management System was mothballed in 1999. It considered the composition of streets and the traffic to help the city create a regular repaving schedule.

"That system is pretty much obsolete," Mr. Costa said. "It was kicking out that we needed to pave 80 miles of streets, when we only had money for 40 miles."

The city should pave 60 to 80 miles of streets annually, Mr. Costa said, but it can't afford it.

Councilman William Peduto said the city should bring back the computerized system, and "put all of that information online and to show every taxpayer when their street was last repaved, and when it should be paved.

"We have the ability to take the politics out of it. We just do not have the willingness to turn from the politics-as-usual system by which streets get paved."