Thread by @jacquesmarcoux

The annual pothole news cycle is upon us, so lets take a deep dive into the history of news coverage in Winnipeg about these road surface depressions #mbpoli #wpgpoli 1/

I looked back to the 1900s, and turns out the "pothole" as we know it today didn't really enter the Winnipeg psyche until about the late 1930s. Reference to "potholes" in newspapers prior to WW2 tended to refer to discussions about the draining of "potholes" by farmers /2

Here are my two theories to explain this:
(1) The cult of automobile ownership and car ownership levels were still relatively low compared to today;
(2) I'm going to assume that many roads outside of the urban downtown were not paved with concrete yet (e.g. Charleswood) 3/

However in the Manitoba Free Press of 1927 there were many daily road/pothole reports about general road conditions around the province and Winnipeg for motorists planning travel 4/

Wpg Tribune, 1945: An overwhelmed City Engineer W.D. Hurst told councilors " there are about 330 lanes in the city vying for first place as the 'worst lane in the city' " 5/

Plenty of convos around this time about paving gravel and dirt roads and also further mechanizing public works. One resident told a city committee that the pot holes filled with water and mud were so bad that neighbourhood kids were walking on the rail lines to get to school. 6/

Wpg Tribune, 1943: a reader wrote to the newspaper saying he saw kids taking pothole repairs along Ellice into their own hands by hauling gravel in their wagon and filing holes themselves. 7/

Wpg Tribune, 1946: A reoccurring theme throughout newspaper ads is auto parts/repairs marketing their products to Winnipeggers using messaging about the resilience of their products in the face of potholes. 8/

Wpg Tribune, 1947: Reporter Ted Schrader writes about a drive he did to document the potholes between Winnipeg and the U.S. border to understand why Americans seemingly keep saying our roads are the worst. A familiar refrain to this day! 9/

In response to Schrader's article, an American from Ohio wrote to the paper calling for Canadians to build a "super highway" from East to West, suggesting the gains in US tourism would cover the cost. (Note: the TransCanada Highway wasn't completed until the 60s) 10/

Wpg Free Press, 1949: Chevy Ad promotes a new car that can handle "washboard" roads and potholes. 11/

Wpg Free Press, April 1949: "Motorist Springtime Menace" strikes again.

Crews can't keep up and so "vehicles will have to take a beating and their drivers a jolting" for now! One car on St. Mary's Road had its wheel torn off in a foot-deep pothole. 12/

Wpg Tribune, 1954: City Engineer W.D. Hurst now says this is the worst year he's ever seen for potholes. He says many years of under-funding for roads has lead to this situation. /13

News article that same year describes how car testers (people hired by manufacturers to run stress tests) were doing a cross Canada drive and told a reporter that "roads were fine until they passed Kenora, then the potholes really shook the car" 14/

Wpg Free Press, 1953: Photo caption reads: "Car forced into oncoming lane at brow of hill" 15/

In 1953, the @WinnipegNews photographers did some fancy stuff in the darkroom to give this pic a "shaky" effect. 16/

City Aldermen said the potholes:
"Shake your false teeth..." and are "Shaking buses apart..."

Our friend in Public Works W.D. Hurst this time points the finger at the Greater Winnipeg Transit commission who apparently are responsible for some of the road maintenance. 17/

Some nice potholes on Corydon in 1956! 18/

Wpg Tribune, 1956: a auto repair shot owner said business is "better than ever", adding that "sometimes we fix up a car and it's back within two weeks with the wheels out of line again" 19/

The spring of 1956 saw many angry letters from citizens in the paper. This one is signed by "Irate Motorist" 20/

In 1958, the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives have weaponized the pothole situation to attack the Liberals of the day, saying there are "as many potholes as there are government promises"! /21

Uh oh! Bad news for our public works friend W.D. Hurst....

Just as the city's "shock troops" are fighting the so-called "Battle of the Potholes", the reporter found out he's missing in action while on vacation in California during prime time! 22/

1960: Winnipeg media covered a case of a guy who was stopped by police in Ottawa for impaired driving, but turns out he was just dodging potholes.

This hits close to home. 23/

1962: Nadeau St. in St. Boniface comes up repeatedly in the 60s as being problematic. This letter from R.T. Hébert suggests the situation isn't bad if you're driving a Tank, but for all other residents in cars, he's begging for road repairs. 24/

And yes, now the residents of Nadeau St. have unofficially renamed their street "Burma Road"! 25/

At the height of the Cold War, we were at least happy to know the Russians didn't have nice pothole-free roads either. 26/

Now in 1967, we have a bit of suburban vs. urban stuff going on here. The first sign of spring for suburbanites is the sight of a robin, whereas for inner city dwellers, its the potholes. 27/

Wpg Free Press, 1979: Mechanics are making off like bandits! 28/

The Wpg Free Press covered a story in 1979 about a town in Oregon that sold its potholes to local sponsors in town to help pay for road renewal. Oddly, the idea was a hit. 29/

Wpg Free Press, 1986: We're now seeing the emergence of Doug Spiers' comedic style in this news report 30/

Deputy Mayor John Angus launched a hotline at 986-2557 for residents to flag potholes. Turns out that was his direct line, and so his office got flooded with calls. (Apologies to whoever currently has that number at the city...) 31/

In the pre-311 internet days, @aldosantin reported on the launch of an official pothole hotline in 1988. 32/

We've now reached the 90s, and so Winnipeg cyclist are now also speaking up about road conditions, and their anger of getting ticketed for riding on the sidewalk when there are potholes everywhere. 33/

Now @danlett write about the "holey nightmare" in 1994. Mr. Dickson looks unhappy. 34/

Wpg Free Press, 1995: Now we're seeing the rise of public relations/comms in local government. Councilor Lazarenko criticizes decision to hire more comms folks "to tell people why the potholes are not going to be repaired" when they need money for potholes. 35/

Old school crowd-sourcing by the @WinnipegNews in 1996. Here they are asking readers to fill a form and submit their pothole sightings around the city. 36/

I'm going to end it here, because this could go on for ever. Hope you enjoyed the longest @WpgPoli Twitter thread you've ever read.

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