In The News

‘Pothole Robin Hood’ grabs headlines around the world

In Jackson, Miss., and in news stories being published all over the world, they’re calling him the “Pothole Robin Hood.”

His real name is Ron Chane, the 43-year-old owner of a screen-printing business who decided to do something about all the potholes in his neighborhood.

Borrowing some street department asphalt that was left on a vacant lot, Chane and his girlfriend started filling the potholes themselves, eventually filling 100 of the holes.

“We just thought, hey, this is just a small thing we’re doing right here, that it amounts maybe to nothing, but maybe it’s something more than we understand it to be,” Chane told Land Line Now.

Chane said the asphalt was “just sitting there” in a field, with grass growing in it. Filling a few holes felt satisfying, so they kept going.

“We just kept rolling, but as we kept doing it, more people kept running out of their houses, giving us the thumbs up and all this kind of stuff. So I was like, OK, maybe we’re making an impact,” Chane said, “because there’s people like us out there who are understanding the situation for what it is. … It motivated us.”

Chane says they marked the words “citizen repaired” beside the patched potholes and that their intent was only to get the attention of City Hall. Eventually, the street department asked him to back off, and Chane, who says he likes to push boundaries, knew he’d gone far enough.

“The first hundred holes was basically about the goal and the idea of doing it,” Chane said. “But other than the first hole and the last hole, it was just about being cocky and making a statement.”

Chane says he’s been called by scores of news organizations, some as far away as Britain.

Land Line staff contributed to this report.

www.LandLineMag.com