New Orleans residents have gotten creative with the city’s potholes over the years. We’ve seen everything from potholes filled with oyster shells to celebrations surrounding the gaping pits in our pavement.
An exhibit resurrected this morning in the Bywater, on the cross-section of Gallier and Royal, may be the most offensive yet.
Photo by Taylor Galmiche.
The attraction includes four phallic cardboard cutouts and a blow up doll with a sign that reads, “Plug my hole.”
The exhibit instructs offended citizens to call “529-2837,” the number for the Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans.
Andrea Young, who lives a few houses from the exhibit, said, “I think it’s really funny… I don’t think I’ll need to explain all the nuisance to my kids when they get home, but they’ll probably have questions.”
Andy Towbin, one of the creators of the exhibit, has petitioned the city to fill the pothole for over four months.
“We’ve made repetitive calls to the Sewage and Water Board. A contractor was supposed to come out — nothing’s happened. We got fed up,” said Towbin.
Towbin hopes the exhibit goes viral so the city will feel compelled to fill the hole.
According to him, the hole takes up two parking spaces, and has become a mosquito breeding ground and a site to dump trash.
Christopher Kilbourn, a Bywater resident, got out of his car to take a closer look at the exhibit. He thinks New Orleans needs more stuff like this.
“I think it draws attention to a problem that’s very New Orleans-specific in a way that’s very New Orleans-specific,” he said.
The city reports that the Department of Public Works’ Maintenance Division filled 60,401 potholes in 2013 and 25,348 potholes in 2014. It was scheduled to fill 40,000 potholes in 2015.
“While we have made great progress over the last five years, more must be done,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu noted in a city press release.
Young agrees that a greater effort needs to be made to solve the pothole problem that has plagued New Orleans for years.
“What’s more offensive,” she asked. “Having these symbols or having these kind of giant holes in the middle of our roads?”
