Flowers planted in potholes this morning!
potholes
25 Feb 2018
/ 08:37
CORFU. Despite the rain volunteers from the movement ΄Your Complaints to the Mayor΄ went ahead with their planned flower-planting in Corfu Town.
Flowers were planted in potholes as planned. Due to the rain there wasn't a big turnout but, nevertheless, it was a start!
This ‘light-hearted’ form of protest, which seems to be becoming all the rage around the world, has been in Greece for a while and has now arrived in Corfu! People throughout Greece have adopted this ‘green’ idea and have published photos from similar activities in other towns.
Planting flowers in potholes is an innovative way of highlighting the serious problems with so many poorly constructed and maintained roads.
The initiative for Sunday’s flower-planting in Corfu Town came from the Facebook Page ‘Your Complaints to the Mayor’.
Lemon tree in Cephalonia
Leading the way in Greece, in 2011 Cephalonia residents planted a lemon tree! Water pipes were damaged In the main road of the district Kaminarata, so a repair crew came and fixed the damage but left a huge pothole to the inconvenience of drivers and pedestrians alike.
Crete
Crete also embraced this alternative form of protest in 2015 and September 2017. “As the Municipality of Heraklion isn’t doing anything to repair the dangerous potholes in the roads, we’ve decided to plant flowers in them.” They created a Group on Facebook called ‘Plant a Pothole’ to try and involve as many people as possible and already have hundreds of members.
Serres
“The residents of Kerkini hit out against the indifference of the Municipality of Sintikis in May 2015. The road leading to one of the best-known tourist areas in Serres – Lake Kerkini – is in dreadful condition.”
Even when the residents of Kerkini took action by closing the road, nobody paid any attention. So they decided to protest in a different way and planted flowers along the road.
Komotini
From the announcement of the Citizens Party to the Municipality of Komotini – “The potholes on Lykavito St. are now ‘in bloom’ thanks to a group of conscientious residents…we thought we’d brighten up the area with some flowers and could have planted vegetables in some of the larger potholes – these are difficult times and they could be needed…”
International trend
There have been various unusual ways to protest against potholes around the world. In addition to the planting of flowers by the gentle souls of London, including Steve Wheen with his wonderful tiny gardens, people around the world have found other interesting ways to protest.
Potholes with names
In the town of Raipur in India residents came up with a way to draw politicians’ attention to the problem. They organized ‘religious ceremonies’ to baptize the potholes and give them the names of politicians!
In Uganda fishermen set up their fishing equipment hoping to catch some fish from the potholes. The artistic Russians created graffiti around the holes – with the faces of local politicians.
In Canada in 2006 they had the same problem but came up with a new way to draw attention to it. Local residents were photographed naked in the potholes and a calendar was made, which was distributed widely. A Montreal photographer produced a series of photos inspired by Alice in Wonderland in which Alice disappeared down a hole!
Finally, in Essex a woman was so exasperated by the state of the road in front of her house that she got some Smurf figures and set up a whole village around the potholes! She took photographs, which she sent off, and the next day a crew came round to fix the problem.
With information from: Guardian, cretalive, serreslife, eftanis.blogspot, azinlikca.net
This ‘light-hearted’ form of protest, which seems to be becoming all the rage around the world, has been in Greece for a while and has now arrived in Corfu! People throughout Greece have adopted this ‘green’ idea and have published photos from similar activities in other towns.
Planting flowers in potholes is an innovative way of highlighting the serious problems with so many poorly constructed and maintained roads.
The initiative for Sunday’s flower-planting in Corfu Town came from the Facebook Page ‘Your Complaints to the Mayor’.
Lemon tree in Cephalonia
Leading the way in Greece, in 2011 Cephalonia residents planted a lemon tree! Water pipes were damaged In the main road of the district Kaminarata, so a repair crew came and fixed the damage but left a huge pothole to the inconvenience of drivers and pedestrians alike.
Crete
Crete also embraced this alternative form of protest in 2015 and September 2017. “As the Municipality of Heraklion isn’t doing anything to repair the dangerous potholes in the roads, we’ve decided to plant flowers in them.” They created a Group on Facebook called ‘Plant a Pothole’ to try and involve as many people as possible and already have hundreds of members.
Serres
“The residents of Kerkini hit out against the indifference of the Municipality of Sintikis in May 2015. The road leading to one of the best-known tourist areas in Serres – Lake Kerkini – is in dreadful condition.”
Even when the residents of Kerkini took action by closing the road, nobody paid any attention. So they decided to protest in a different way and planted flowers along the road.
Komotini
From the announcement of the Citizens Party to the Municipality of Komotini – “The potholes on Lykavito St. are now ‘in bloom’ thanks to a group of conscientious residents…we thought we’d brighten up the area with some flowers and could have planted vegetables in some of the larger potholes – these are difficult times and they could be needed…”
International trend
There have been various unusual ways to protest against potholes around the world. In addition to the planting of flowers by the gentle souls of London, including Steve Wheen with his wonderful tiny gardens, people around the world have found other interesting ways to protest.
Potholes with names
In the town of Raipur in India residents came up with a way to draw politicians’ attention to the problem. They organized ‘religious ceremonies’ to baptize the potholes and give them the names of politicians!
In Uganda fishermen set up their fishing equipment hoping to catch some fish from the potholes. The artistic Russians created graffiti around the holes – with the faces of local politicians.
In Canada in 2006 they had the same problem but came up with a new way to draw attention to it. Local residents were photographed naked in the potholes and a calendar was made, which was distributed widely. A Montreal photographer produced a series of photos inspired by Alice in Wonderland in which Alice disappeared down a hole!
Finally, in Essex a woman was so exasperated by the state of the road in front of her house that she got some Smurf figures and set up a whole village around the potholes! She took photographs, which she sent off, and the next day a crew came round to fix the problem.
With information from: Guardian, cretalive, serreslife, eftanis.blogspot, azinlikca.net
