but, but, but muh roads...

…A small circle of friends created Portland Anarchist Road Care in February as a response to deteriorating road conditions, which they believe make driving and cycling less safe (as well as a financial burden to owners of damaged vehicles). Whereas the planet’s other pothole vigilantes rely on mostly passive approaches to draw attention to holes—painting male genitalia around them in the U.K., making them tweet the government when run over in Panama—Portland’s avengers take direct action, using a temporary but well-established mending technique called cold patching.

They have patched holes on three city blocks and remain in a “constant state” of awareness to find other craters to fill, emails the anonymous PARC. Needless to say, they have yet to consult the municipality for any of these activities. “We don’t think the city should exist; we are only limited by our capacity and our imaginations,” says PARC. “We aren’t asking permission, because these are our streets. They belong to the people of Portland, and the people of Portland will fix them.”

Eliminating potholes isn’t only a matter of property ownership, the group asserts, but one of morality. “There can be no ethical services provided by the government because they are facilitated through the power of the gun,” writes PARC, presumably while flipping the bird like in the top photo. “Don’t get us wrong, we believe that many of these services are crucial for society, like healthcare, education, and maintained roadways, but we believe that the way to achieve access for all is by deconstructing the state and capitalism, as well as other coercive hierarchies that exist in our society. It is this driving philosophy that motivates our actions, not only to fix the potholes, but to take power back from the state, into the hands of the people…”

…the city just wishes that people let it handle it by the book.

“It’s not safe or legal for people to fill potholes on streets that are maintained by the city,” says Rivera. “They run the risk of being injured in a traffic crash.... They also run the risk of being held personally liable if someone were to be injured by the pothole they attempted to fix.”

Portland’s fly-by-night pothole packers don’t seem worried, though. They claim their numbers are growing, that they might someday branch out into other forms of infrastructure repair. “It is necessary to build the community networks that we envision for a post-revolutionary society,” PARC says. “When people ask anarchists, ‘Who will fix the roads?’ the answer is obvious: We will.”

Domino's Is Fixing Potholes Because They're Ruining Pizza (2018)

“America’s infrastructure is in a sorry state. Bridges are crumbling, airports and seaports are falling into disrepair, and our roads are covered in potholes. This sucks for everyone, but especially Domino’s, which is so tired of potholes ruining its pizzas that it has taken to fixing them itself…

…also asking its customers to vote on which town to repair potholes in next. Customers can submit requests to pave their town’s potholes at Domino’s new pothole-related website…

…This initiative is undeniably good for the towns where Domino's shows up. But the fact that a private company has to repair roads is a delicious indictment of the country’s infrastructure problems.”

Domino’s Paving For Pizza

Strike.Me

Buy Me a Coffee

We've a dream in our hearts and we won't give it up! Insane with desperation in a world so fucking cold and grey. Masked Soulless creatures toiling, wasting day to day. Production units, fucking cogs, nothing but a number. Hollow lives, some existence, do you ever wonder? There must be an alternative to this insensitive way of life! There is an alternative, but we're gotta fucking fight. How much longer can we exist in this shit world? The blueprints for the apocalypse have been unfurled Government after government has proven fucking false! Have YOU answers? What's YOUR answer? WE'RE the answer and the cause! If government is the answer it's a stupid fucking question! Time and again we're criticized by those quick to buy into the media definition of what is Anarchy. A media whose sole purpose it to serve the rich elite. The corporations: those whose sole interest is profit at whatever price. People buy into this shit unknowingly from birth. What alternative source of information are they given after all? None. You question, you doubt, you give up! Rebel a bit and get it out of your system. There are no alternatives, right? Wrong. You won't find change in government. You won't find change in escapism either. You will however find change in you, in us. We are the system. We are the masses so many speak of. We are the root of the problem. We are the base. We are the people. Who will build the roads? We will! Who will provide the basic necessities? We will. Who will bring an end to poverty, homelessness, greed, war, death, famine, injustice? If anything, we will. We are the alternative. There is no savior, there is no god. A better leader won't come along, a better government doesn't exist. It's just YOU and I.