A single resident can legally dismantle pavement to plant native species

Evidence

Peter Berg, the founder of modern bioregionalism, did a little bit of manifest dismantling in front of his San Francisco house in the 1980s. Like Fukuoka, he was inspired by weeds—in this case, the ones growing in the cracks of the sidewalk pavement. Berg got the city’s permission to rip up the concrete and plant native species. Giving a tour to visitors, he said he was “secretly pleased to believe that seeds from these plants blow out and into other sidewalk cracks and are propagating more of these natives all over the place, instead of the European invaders.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 658

Categorization

• SEED: This is a perfect concrete case for an essay arguing Odell doesn’t prescribe withdrawal — Berg’s tiny domestic act is emphatically engaged, not withdrawn.
• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the ‘Grafting & Growth: On Trees as Infrastructure’ piece — weeds colonizing sidewalk cracks as a botanical counter-infrastructure against pavers.