18-Year-Old Metro Detroit Pothole Filler Shows The City How To Do Their Job

Drivers, and particularly those of us in the midwest, are sick and tired of our crumbling infrastructure. Potholes big enough to swallow tires and chunk alloy wheels crop up annually, but they are even worse following a particularly rough winter. One Dearborn Heights teenager decided he'd had enough, and started filling the potholes on a particularly bad stretch of Cherry Hill Road himself. Ali Chamy, 18, went to Home Depot and bought buckets of asphalt patch, filled the hole, and posted the video of his handy work on TikTok where it got hundreds of thousands of views. It seems as though the viewers gravitate toward Chamy's work as they're facing Michigan isn't the only place facing pothole-related driving crises right now. 

Young Chamy posted the video in an effort to bring attention to the pothole issue, and it seems to have worked. Over the weekend recently elected Dearborn Heights mayor Mo Baydoun responded to Chamy's post. "The good news is that the city has been awarded a $2.6 million dollar grant to fix all of Cherry Hill from Gully-Inkster," he wrote in a post. "As for the young man, thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. Even my mother sent me it on WhatsApp. I just ask that you be careful."

Dearborn Heights Department of Public Works Director John Danci told Local 4 News Detroit that he appreciates the attention to the issue, but made his concern for the safety of would-be hole-fillers known. "Man, next time call the department," Danci explained to Chamy. "It's not safe to be out there."

Cherry Hill Road is scheduled for a complete tear out and reconstruction project, says the city, but it'll take some time and will definitely back up some traffic for a bit when the project gets underway. "I think anyone can agree it's needed," concluded Danci. 

Chamy's handiwork isn't what I would call great work, but it's definitely a good bit better than a foot-deep hole in the road. Obviously the city workers would be able to do a much better job, as they're pouring hot asphalt and they have sealer to keep it from disintegrating too quickly. Those city workers also have things like permitting, safety barricades, orange barrels, and signage to warn drivers that road work is being done. While I don't exactly fear for Chamy's safety in this video, I understand where Danci's concerns come from. That being said, perhaps the city should have done something about the holes on this road before a vigilante took to the streets to do it themselves. 

The department of public works did encourage Chamy to apply for a job in road construction, if he's so inclined to get his road fixed up on the quick. If I were the mayor, I would have gone a step farther and offered the kid a job just for the optics alone. Having this kid fill potholes and film them for TikTok would be incredible public relations for Mayor Baydoun's administration. 

Obviously a city like Dearborn Heights doesn't have the budget or manpower of New York City, but Mayor Mamdani's recent pothole blitz effort saw the filling of 7,200 springtime potholes in one weekend. Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer came to power with a promise to "Fix the Damn Roads" but the damn roads have a bad habit of crumbling anyway. Perhaps Detroit's surrounding suburbs should orchestrate a similar effort. One of the things I've learned about effective government is that you should shout about your successes and people will actually know you're doing something. Show, don't tell.