Manchester man draws penises around potholes so the city will fix them

Frustrated by the number of potholes pockmarking his city streets, an anonymous man recently discovered a way to get the city to pay attention: penises. The man has been using industrial chalk to draw penises around each pothole, claiming the eyesores expedite the filling process, BBC reports.

"[The potholes] don't get filled. They'll be there for months," the artist, who calls himself Wanksy, told BBC's Newsbeat. "Suddenly you draw something amusing around it, everyone sees it, and it either gets reported or fixed."

The town council, unsurprisingly, says the work is both unnecessary and obscene, claiming a penis frame will not get a pothole fixed any faster than usual. But the potholes are nonetheless getting filled:

The artist notes the drawings will fade away in "a week or two," so the vandalism isn't permanent — it's just a temporary, creative way of getting something done.

Comments

Wanksy is a better name than Banksy.

Art manifest.

There’d be a hell of a lot of dicks on the streets of New York… slightly more than usual.

he’s right.

It’s an amusing "solution" but it’s important to note that this isn’t due to laziness or apathy on the part of the council.

Draft figures show Bury will have to find £15.8 million in savings in 2015/16 due to a 14 per cent cut in its budget — more than the expected 10 per cent.
The council must also save an additional £2.2 million in 2014/15, on top of the package of cuts totalling £7.4 million which had already been planned.

Source – http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/10672803.Bury_Council_hit_by_another___15_8_million_of_cuts/

When fixing life threatening pot holes aren’t a top priority of your city’s budget, you’ve got a problem.

To be honest , very few potholes are life-threatening, the main impacts are on costs of cars repair and pollution cause by people slowing to avoid them.
Council budgets in the UK are so constrained that is is often a choice between repairing potholes and providing care services for elderly, disabled or at risk people.
Care services are at least relatively stable, pot hole repairs are exacerbated by the bad weather we have had.

Where I have the issue is the so called "car tax’ which was supposed to be used for road repairs but isn’t.

very few potholes are life-threatening… costs of cars repair

You seem to be unaware of the fact that many users of the road are motorcyclists and cyclists. They certainly are life-threatening.

People tripping over them and being less visible to oncoming traffic can also be a major hazard.

It isn*t due to budget cuts either.

Really? How do you work that one out?

Potholes are still a rarity in Europe compared to tons of places in the US/Canada, that have, in the south, no desire for public spending and in the north horrible road destroying weather.

Oh yes. Montreal is Spring is a brutal place to drive.

Why do you assume this is a man?

BBC article refers to him as such, he spoke to them on the condition of anonymity (in their reporting) but they presumably know his gender.

She vs He

He draws dicks like a guy.

Shhh. Don’t you dare offend the offendables – it’s mandatory to presume that women are more juvenile and capable of drawing penises on roads than men. /s

But nothing draws dicks like an MRA convention.

Aside from the source (BBC) actually speaking to him, would a woman start drawing penises on the streets around town?

Depends on how she is dressed.

How would this guy communicate with a city who permits large trees under low hanging power lines in a place with strong wind storms?

They really allow that shit in your area? That’s just begging for something bad to happen.

We had asked for a couple of trees to be removed in our area once because they were just destroying the sidewalk and were tilting over a couple of years. City ignored us and a couple years back a gnarly case of Santa Ana winds knocked a tree over which took down 4 power lines and went into an apartment complex. We were without power for 14 hours before they set up power generators for the area of the community.

Maybe you should draw big dicks with gnarly bushes that are crying "trim me down" on the trees?

Around here the power company deals with this. After all its their time and money wasted when trees take out the lines.

View All Comments
Back to top ↑