Schenectady, NY Woman Gets Frustrated, Plants Pansies in City's Numerous Potholes. Which Are Then Repaired

That strategy might not work quite as well in the Middle East or Ukraine or North Korea, but hey, who knows? JL 

Ben Axelson reports in Syracuse.com:

"I'm just making a little point, in a nice peaceful way,"

Bad potholes are a telling sign of a rough winter, and flowers are a welcome sign of spring. One Schenectady woman is using one to send a message about the other.
Elaine Santore decided to take action about the potholes that are plaguing the streets of Schenectady. Instead of calling and complaining, she filled them herself with dirt and flowers, WNYT-TV reported.
"It has been a horrible winter so I wanted to cheer some people up," she told The Daily Gazette. "Everybody knows that the potholes are bad and that the city could do a better job."
Santore has filled and planted colorful pansies in a total of 10 potholes on city streets.
"I'm just making a little point, in a nice peaceful way," she told WNYT.
Santore's point has, apparently, been heard by the city. WNYT reported that just a day after her flowers went in, four of the planters had been filled and replaced by blacktop.
Some of her other planters had been dug up or the flowers run over, but the persistent Santore hit the streets on Tuesday to fill them back up.
"With a little ingenuity you can do something small and make a big difference," she said.
Santore told the Gazette that she has gotten a lot of positive feedback, and hopes other city residents will follow her example.
"There is always another place to fill a pothole," she said. "People could do it on their own just for fun and to show that they care about the city a little bit."
Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy told the Gazette in March that crews are working nonstop to fill potholes as complaints come in.
"The crews are out there all of the time; it's an annual ritual," he said. "We try to do the higher-traffic streets first, then secondary streets. The crews will also work on a neighborhood system, so when they are in a neighborhood, they will do other potholes nearby."
Potholes and rough roads are a major problem in cities throughout the state after the harsh winter. In Syracuse, drivers will spend an estimated $477 extra each year on repairs due to rough roads, according to a report by national transportation research group TRIP.