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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDC Metro threatens Phantom Planter with arrest if he tends his Dupont Circle station flowers
By Robert McCartney, Published: June 22 E-mail the writer
Quirky garden artist Henry Docter has been surreptitiously planting flowers in public places on four continents since 1979. His unauthorized beautification efforts have frequently aroused surprise and delight but never a problem until this month, when he ran afoul of Washingtons Metro transit system.
Metro threatened Docter with arrest, fines and imprisonment if he dared to weed, water or otherwise tend to more than 1,000 morning glories and other flowers whose seeds he planted in 176 barren flower boxes alongside the top stretch of the north escalators at the Dupont Circle station.
Metro said its only concerned about safety. The boxes are set in steep, cobblestoned inclines, so Metro fears that Docter could hurt himself or others if he fell.
That doesnt impress the man who calls himself the Phantom Planter. He said Metro is exaggerating the risk. Hes had little difficulty walking up and down two narrow service ramps to get to the boxes since he started planting there in October.
In addition, Docter has told Metro that hes willing to use a harness as Metro workers do. Hed sign a liability waiver saying he wouldnt sue Metro if hes hurt.
Ive never gotten in trouble for planting flowers, Docter, 52, said last week. Never has anyone overreacted with such an absence of common sense.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/metro-threatens-phantom-planter-with-arrest-if-he-tends-his-dupont-circle-station-flowers/2013/06/22/87aaed02-db5f-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html?hpid=z2
leveymg
(36,418 posts)But, that's Washington . . .
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)Demit
(11,238 posts)Here in Philadelphia, there's a wonderful strategic partnership between the city and the horticultural society. Result? Gorgeous public spaces. Urban gardeners without their own spaces happy to volunteer, and the city benefits. Where's the DC city govt in all of this??
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)--definitely a troublemaker....
What are those little cubbies for anyway?
Uncreative response.
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...and boo to Metro for not figuring out another response than to threaten him with arrest.
As an aside, when I was in DC last year I rode those DuPont circle escalators. They are very, very long, and I will admit to feeling a little vertigo as we kept rising and rising... really put butterflies in my stomach. It surprised me as it's just an escalator after all. But it was very real, happened every time I rode them.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)leveymg
(36,418 posts)Last edited Tue Jun 25, 2013, 08:00 PM - Edit history (1)
to death.