Tired of a nasty pothole in the middle of the street, a Florida man decided to make a statement about the road condition by filling the concrete pit with banana trees.
Bryan Raymond of Fort Myers, Florida, planted the banana tree on Thursday night after being frustrated with the constant filling of potholes with cement. Raymond runs a business on the same street as the pothole. He told WBBH-TV that his security cameras have repeatedly observed the damage to the car caused by the pothole.
“If we have to maintain it and make sure that no one is injured, we will place something obvious there to make sure that no one gets into the hole,” Raymond told the news media.
Raymond said that because the road is located on a private street, business owners, not the county government, are responsible for maintenance. Since the potholes were deep enough to hold the tree, Raymond told the news media that this seemed to be a perfect statement.
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After planting the trees, some local drivers expressed support for the move and praised Raymond for his sense of humor in this situation.
“I like it, I think it’s interesting. We should have more of these things,” Scott Shane told WBBH. “I think this is sending information.”
John Herk, who lives in Fort Myers, said that when he saw the tree for the first time, he couldn’t believe it. “I stopped, I thought, it was really a tree in the middle of the road,” Herk told WINK-TV.
Nicholas Angus told the news media that when he saw the reformed potholes, “my wife and I laughed immediately.”
However, Angus added that although this tree looks interesting, it actually makes the road conditions worse because the driver now has to turn more sharply to avoid hitting the plants.
“This tree makes it more difficult to get around the next pothole next to it. Because usually I just drive over the pothole, but because there is a big tree, you can’t drive through a tree,” Angus told WINK.
Charlie Lopez also told the news media that although the tree is a statement, local business owners will soon need to come up with a more sustainable solution.
Lopez said: “The information is there, but unfortunately, it is ultimately up to us to find a solution.”
