A man in Hopewell, Virginia grew tired of waiting for the city to fix a persistent pothole and decided to take matters into his own hands. After a year of filing complaints to city hall with no results, he planted a small tree in the pothole and attached Christmas lights to it. The viral TikTok video of his tree garnered nearly 15 million views, and finally got the city’s attention. Within 24 hours of the video’s posting, crews were dispatched to fix the pothole.
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A Virginia man planted a tree in a pothole after he says his city ignored requests to fix it.
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A viral TikTok video of the tree now has nearly 15 million views.
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After the viral video, the city of Hopewell, Virginia finally filled in the pothole.
A man in Hopewell, Virginia may have finally figured out how to get a city to fill a pothole.
After a year of complaints but no results, the man planted a small tree in the hole and strung Christmas lights around it. Then a video of his tree went viral on TikTok.
That seemed to get the city’s attention, according to WTVR, a local CBS News affiliate.
Josh Anderson told the station he filed complaints to Hopewell’s city hall but the city never sent anyone to repair the road damage.
“I was leaving to go back to work, I hit the hole,” Anderson told the outlet. “I backed up, filled the back of the truck with dirt, dumped it in there, and stuck the plant in there.”
Anderson told WTVR that he stopped before driving away and took photos of the plant, which he posted to Facebook. A TikTok user then uploaded those photos to their account. That video now has almost 15 million views and 3 million likes.
Anderson told WTVR that the city had removed his tree from the road by the time he returned home from work. So he planted another tree in the pothole and this time attached Christmas lights to it. That and the viral attention may have finally convinced the city to take action.
“As many times as I went to ask to get it done and nothing’s been done about it. And as soon as I make a TikTok and put it on their web page with a tree in it, within 24 hours, they had a crew out here fixing it,” Anderson told the outlet.
The city of Hopewell did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment on Saturday.
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