Seeds of ‘gentle activism’: flower pot(holes) protest state of city road

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Fed up with the potholes that have prompted a deluge of 311 info line complaints from herself and St. Vital neighbours this summer, Dawna Smith pulled out her garden trowel and got to work.

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Fed up with the potholes that have prompted a deluge of 311 info line complaints from herself and St. Vital neighbours this summer, Dawna Smith pulled out her garden trowel and got to work.

She couldn’t pave over the potholes herself, but they were deep enough Smith could fill them with dirt and flowers.

“I started with the impatiens, because I thought that would be funny,” the Springside Drive resident said (pun fully intended). The small pink blooms peeked out over the Winnipeg street’s surface, their mound of soil covering the caved-in asphalt.

Dawna Smith planted flowers in the potholes on her street. Within a couple of days, the city was filling them in.

By the time she’d finished digging up some zinnias and daisies from her garden, neighbours had brought over marigolds, petunias, and a whole collection of annuals with which Smith sowed seeds of “gentle activism.”

“I liked the directness of it and the gentleness of it at the same time,” she said Thursday.

In all, she replanted about 10 flowers into potholes along the 58-house residential street, getting kudos as she went from supportive neighbours and amused passersby.

It was like an art installation, Smith said — one she was prepared to maintain.

However, to her delight, city crews showed up to fill in the potholes Aug. 9, two days after she planted those first impatiens. (She put up a sign and set out some snacks to thank the workers.)

Smith said city potholes have cost her hundreds of dollars in vehicle damage, and submitting complaints to the City of Winnipeg hadn’t gotten her far.

After a third damaged tire — in a construction zone on Stafford Street — Smith wrote a letter to the municipal government pleading her case. She also asked for compensation, to no avail.

“We’ve been trying to weave around them, and it’s just not fun,” Smith said, adding: “It’s a cumulative sort of frustration.”

“I started with the impatiens, because I thought that would be funny,” the Springside Drive resident said (pun fully intended)," said Dawna Smith referring to the type of flower she planted.

It’s unclear whether the planted flowers spurred city crews to action, or whether dispatched crews even knew about them before they arrived.

The city had already received a number of complaints about potholes on Springside Drive, and crews were dispatched based on reports to 311, a city spokeswoman said this week, confirming the work was completed Wednesday.

It’s likely to be at least three years before the road sees any major reconstruction.

“We are aware of potholes and other ongoing pavement concerns on the road and have it on our list of potential future reconstruction candidates; this would not be considered until 2026 at earliest,” the city spokeswoman stated.

Jackie Hanna, a longtime neighbourhood resident, said deep potholes have been a persistent problem for years. She put in a complaint to 311 about them in June, and said she was informed she’d receive a response within three months.

“It looked like our street was bombed,” Hanna said, noting she also had to avoid the potholes while going for a walk with her son, who uses a wheelchair.

The sidewalk is too buckled and uneven for her to push the chair anywhere but the road. It’s a high-traffic area, on a bus route, and Hanna said she and other residents were amazed by Smith’s germination of an idea to highlight the problem.

“I thought: kudos to her,” Hanna said, adding her drive home is much smoother now. “It was great; I didn’t have to swerve.”

Construction workers filling in the potholes on Springside Drive containing flowers planted by Dawna Smith.

Smith said there are bigger issues that could benefit from a similar kind of activism. While ubiquitous, “they’re just potholes after all,” Smith said, explaining she knows crews are busy and the city has many pressing demands.

“I deeply, deeply wish I could plant flowers to help people who don’t have homes… There are so many other things we can work toward.”

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Katie MayReporter

Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.

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Katie MayReporter

Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.

Read full biography

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