Planting trees or flowers in potholes offers powerful symbolism
This act of gardening defiance is a good reminder about infrastructure and nature
Symbolic acts can resonate. Whether it’s raising a black glove on the Olympic medals podium in the name of racial justice or pouring a bucket of ice water over your head to spur ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease) research, these gestures can stick with us.
Recently, I became aware of a small but fascinating symbolic action. In November, a man in Providence, R.I., suffered four flat tires when he drove through a pothole on his way to pick up dinner. Frustrated by this infrastructure failure, he later came back to the site and planted a Christmas tree sapling in the asphalt crater.
It turns out this isn’t the first time someone has thought to fill a pothole with a small tree, flowers or plants. While at least one individual in London began doing this on footpaths and sidewalks nearly a decade ago, in more recent years, people have been taking to the streets to offer up this quiet form of gardening protest. By 2015 in Oregon and other states, this activity was gaining traction. Since then, people have been inspired to do mid-road planting in smaller towns such as Port Arthur, Texas and Northville Township, Mich. as well as international hubs such as New York City and Brussels, Belgium
While these merry pranksters’ decision to use trowels and potting dirt to band-aid our roads will definitely not solve the problem — and, likely, will lead to the tragic demise of their planted greenery or prove hazardous for drivers — there is something poetic about this gesture.
Without a doubt, it’s an eye-catching way to bring attention to a problem that must be fixed. Sure, any elected official at the municipal level will tell you the fastest way to keep office is to make sure potholes are filled. However, despite this conventional wisdom, states continue to fall into the trap of prioritizing new builds over fixing crumbling infrastructure.
Take Wisconsin for example. The state is considering spending $1 billion to expand a 3.5-mile section of I-94 from six to eight lanes — despite little evidence it would reduce congestion. This huge spend comes while Wisconsin’s highways are falling apart. Instead of an unnecessary expansion, state officials could update the highway to meet safety standards, which would cost $200 million less than the expansion — and that money could fix a lot of potholes elsewhere.
Wisconsin, of course, is not the only state that needs help with crumbling infrastructure. The U.S. Congress is currently debating a spending bill that, if allocated properly, could address what these potholes represent — an infrastructure that has become downright dangerous.
The decision to inject a little greenery into our roads is also an important reminder of how much nature we have forfeited in the name of roads. No doubt, many of our streets are necessary as part of modern living. But transportation accounted for 29 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 — more than any other sector in the United States. If our society is to avoid the greatest impacts of climate change, we can’t keep building without doing irreparable damage. More emphasis on plants and less on driving must be a greater part of our future.
To that end, creating more “complete streets,” which provide more space for biking and walking, can be part of the solution. Not only would we experience fewer potholes (after all, heavy vehicles help cause them), but complete streets would also serve as a small step toward ensuring we have a healthier planet, where we can enjoy our favorite flowers or sprouting trees somewhere other than the middle of the street, for generations to come.
