THIS WEEK, the anti-man-about-town provides an example of how a scribe travels to an interesting place and then returns home, only to criticize his hometown and subsequently put his foot straight down his own throat. Again.
The author recently visited the Old Strathcona neighborhood of Edmonton, Alberta, where he witnessed how that city implemented a plan to do something with all the hideous utility boxes on the sidewalk.
Most cities have these boxes, usually part of the traffic or telecommunications systems, and residents often complain about the unsightliness of a monolithic gray box protruding from the sidewalk. They’re just plain ugly. Well, as many cities have done, Edmonton hired artists to paint 40 of them with highly creative murals.
The Strathcona neighborhood itself is a community of historical buildings with a smattering of local independent retailers and one that already encourages local artists of any sort. The main drag is Whyte Avenue, a mile-long boulevard of colorful shops, restaurants, pubs, theaters and shopping. It is Edmonton’s urban corridor for the idiosyncratic, its anti–Rodeo Drive.
As the author skulked his way about, he investigated the vivid murals on the utility boxes. Instead of seeing the positive, he became tarnished with a natural feeling of dissatisfaction and came to the conclusion that nothing remotely as cool would ever happen in San Jose.
Well, he was wrong. But before the author knew he was wrong, he spewed an impulsive, infantile tirade on his Facebook page to voice his frustration. It went a little something like this: “The city of SJ wouldn’t even UNDERSTAND anything this interesting or culturally advanced. They’d probably make you pay $40,000 in permits. You’d have to get a paintbrush permit, a trash can permit, a sponge permit, a masking tape permit, plus permission to wear overalls in a public place and probably a hundred other things. And then the Roscoe P. Coltranes over at the police dept. would require at least 10 overtime cops to be present all day long to make sure no one is sneaking a can of beer in his paint supply box. And then the Fire Marshall would demand a walk-thru with the Downtown Association to make sure everything is proper. But before all that, the RDA would insist that the artwork poses a threat to the five people who’ve moved into the 400 new condos, and the city would spend probably 18 months dividing the entire conversation up into 12 different committees to decide which shade of blue is the adequate color.”
Only a day later did the author realize the city is much hipper than he gave it credit for. Turns out, San Jose was already in the process of spearheading just such a project. The RDA, who actually initiated the endeavor, experimented by wrapping printed murals around two specific utility boxes, but one was easily torn off by a vandal.
Eric Hon of the San Jose Downtown Association said that the Downtown Property Business Improvement District (PBID) is creating a scope for the project, which includes 152 boxes within the district.
“[PBID] is now is in the process of identifying the high visibility areas that would be addressed first,” he said. “We are also evaluating the type of application to be used. The wraps are one option but there are some concerns about their durability over time. Painting the utility boxes is another viable option. I am having conversations with other cities who have similar projects to see what’s the best approach.”
Several entities own the boxes, including PG&E, Comcast and AT&T. The boys at AT&T have run into serious resistance in cities across the country, including St. Louis and San Francisco, where residents have rallied against the mass installation of these hideous boxes. They are indeed considered an eyesore by many folks.
Well, with San Jose currently hyping itself as the world center of innovation, longing to be the capital of solar technology, green initiatives and such, one can dream that someday we won’t even need these unsightly utility boxes. But San Jose is most likely stuck with AT&T forever, at least in some sense or another. In that regard, the author just hopes he is wrong again.
