Guy Lists Nasty Pothole on Airbnb

Notice Homer's Hideout on Airbnb? If it resembled a pothole dressed up to look like a Simpsons-style living room—replete with couch, sofa, and Homer Simpson doll—then that's the one, City Lab reports. New Orleans resident James Collier cooked up the listing to attract city officials who might repair the eyesore. "One guy wrote to me saying that he wanted to take his wife, but needed to make sure it wasn’t too rustic," says the photographer. But Collier had to say no: "This was just about being a squeaky wheel," he explains. And squeak he did.

The July 23 listing was up for three weeks before city workers arrived to repair the street. "Just talked with the crew that cleared out Homer's Hideout for repair, and they said the awareness created by furnishing the hole helped get them reassigned from curb repairs in Metairie," wrote Collier on Facebook. Airbnb finally removed the listing a week later. "Fake or misrepresented listings have no place in our community and we have removed this listing from our platform," says a rep for the site. Collier isn't the first person to creatively draw attention to municipal eyesores: People have painted genitalia around them, banged pots and pans beside them, and, per the Daily Gazette a few years ago, planted spring flowers inside them. (More potholes stories.)