Already this year, in the United States, more than 3,000 people have been killed because of distracted driving. This number is expected to double in 2018 because of the touch-screen infotainment systems in most new vehicles coming off the assembly lines.
The Durango Public Art Commission needs to control its tunnel vision, and re-examine its notion of art in the medians of busy roads. Has no one learned anything from the “Arc of Ridicule?”
Our “concrete jungle” intersection certainly is overdue for a bad multi-car pileup. To pursue public art, flashing by at 35 miles per hour or more, is dangerous and irresponsible.
Certainly, low-growing evergreens would be more practical. Also, how is art going to react to salt, magnesium chloride, road film, dust and muddy water? And who will clean and maintain the art?
Remember, this about our concrete jungle: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.
Rob Rietveld
Durango
