Our view: A blank canvas? Or fine as is?
July 31, 2011 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Jack Harrigan and his wife were attending an estate sale in Lincoln Park this summer when they were struck by what could be a pretty good idea.
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I’ve always assumed that those who designed the improvements on Piedmont Avenue knew what they were doing. Now that the News Tribune has basically dared local vandals to deface the hard work of a lot of people, I suppose the outcome is inevitable. What the hell were you thinking?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Please dont. Unless you have someone with artistic ability do it, it’ll end up looking like something straight out of East St. Louis. (and if anybody has ever been through there, you know what I mean).
By the way, why are you people living in the dorms for the summer?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Ghetto up the whole city! Why not. At least it would be truth in advertising. Everyone is already poor, might as well have the urban blight to go with it. As a matter of fact, I think we should build retaining walls from 35 at Spirit Mountain to Lester River just so it can be low-rent, trashy, ghetto graffiti crap. And a modern art abstract of Bob Dylan’s head every 300 feet done in glow in the dark dayglo and glitter. And just wait until the monorail and the other goofy train from here to the cities shows up. We can deface them properly too so we can advertise Duluth as trashy everywhere they go.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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The major problem- upkeep a painting is not going to last for a 100 years epecially in this enviroment, look at paint on your house/car. Paint is majorly based on the prep work, and the cliament it is “stored” in. After one or two Duluth winters and snow smashing against it from plows and from mother nature there would be a lot of missing details. I remember when the area around 10th ave east and 5th street were all bright painted the idea was to have it look like the San Franscico “painted laides” area. A few years of 30 below temps and massive snow and rain storm there was a lot of deteration I haven’t looked lately to see what shpe things are in
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Who exactly are these people? Living at UMD in the summer?? And somehow they have an idea that the DNT decides to promote? Maybe they have some thoughts on how to renovate the Bayfront too??
Might as well stir the pot,” continued Harrigan, of Phoenix; he and his wife are living this summer in the dorms at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Might as well stir the pot, since we don’t live here and don’t have to deal with any of the consequences of these dumb ideas.
Maybe the DNT should have a weekly article – Ask a Tourist! where we could get advice on how to make our city more like wherever they come from.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Please don’t I live in that area. I like how it looks now. Murals tend to fade and the art gets outdated fast. City Murals infact are very outdated. Its been up for at least 5 years and there is very little graffiti. What is there is easy to paint over. If anything, think about planting trees or something in that ditch area.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I think it’s pretty unanimous – dumb idea!
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Bad idea. Artwork in areas of pedestrian travel are a good thing. Having people trying to view artwork while driving that stretch of road is an accident waiting to happen.
I’m surprised that some Duluthians don’t know about UMD’s Senior Summer Housing.
http://www.d.umn.edu/housing/summer/living.htm
It’s been going on for a very long time. It’s a good way for the college to make some money from rooms that would otherwise sit empty. The College of St. Scholastica has the same type of program.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I’m open to the idea if they can somehow keep the satanic symbols to a minimum.
Also 4 years olds are cute and adorable but no 4 year olds art please.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Simple answer: No
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
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“…the problem of not enough billboard space in that neighborhood.”
Surely you are joking.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
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Just paint a couple of them, and paint them all dark, almost black. Add train tracks at the bottom going back to a point of infinity, then paint just this little light in the center that looks like a train is coming at you through a tunnel. That’ll keep traffic flowing nicely throw this area.
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*through*, not throw. sorry
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How about a nice row of ornamental trees in front of the arches, like flowering crabapple trees instead? Murals would need re-touching in 5 years and who is going to volunteer to maintain all of them? Ornamental trees do not grow very big and would look nice in spring/summer.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I like that.
I think that I shall never see
Graffiti pretty as a tree.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Sometimes less is more. Don’t mess with the arches; They’re perfect the way they are.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Many colleges offer their dorm rooms to senior citizens for the summer- they earn money and seniors get a place to stay that is inexpensive. I know for sure UMD and St. Schol. have been doing it for years- and many of the community colleges around the area do the same- We actually took advantage of that when our home was being built one summer-
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Why does’nt someone find the artists a nice big wall that can be seen, but sheltered from the weather somewhat. Have them paint a nice MURAL that is some reference to the history of the area. Piedmont looks good the way it is.
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All this idea is is a way to give hippies money from that stupid Legacy Fund. Give taxpayer money to hippies to do hippie stuff. That way they can say there’s “significance”, get really stoned*, and take a bunch of said Legacy money.
(*point of reference, I have no problems in getting really stoned, I just hate hippies, the Legacy fund and the belief that everything needs “art”)
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Ornamental trees! What a great idea! Forget the paint and graffiti…dont need Piedmont looking like the Ghetto hillside!
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Do not have “artists” paint the arches whether for hire or for free. The “artists”, if they want, could donate their time to paint the “correct” color of “anti-graffiti” paint over the existing graffiti and graffiti cover-ups, since the maintenance personnel who currently perform this task must be color blind (just walk through the pedestrian tunnel on 22nd Ave. W. & 8th St.).
If we must spend money, we should turn our spending into an income. I propose to designate the Piedmont Ave. corridor a noise level enforcement zone and collect monies from tickets.
The reason for this is that the traffic is quite loud at times, just go to the waterfalls near the pedestrian tunnel and have coffee or a snack and watch the water for a half an hour. Please do not be worried about the tire tracks, they got there shortly after it opened, and not too many people drive through the tunnel anymore.
While some vehicles are quite loud shifting as they go up Piedmont Ave., most trucks are compression or “Jake” breaking on their way down. Using that tactic is perfectly fine, if the noise levels do not go above a certain level, which are obtained from charts and graphs that are governed by the distance a noise is from a various occupancies like commercial or residential among others. Duluth does have a noise ordinance so legislation is not required, like the “No Fishing” in the bay during concerts like Blues Fest (I‘m not sure why but I couldn’t find that in my 2011 Minnesota Fishing Regulations).
This “zone” could be constructed by using a few traffic cameras, microphones, decibel meters, a computer, and a geek to write the software. Once a vehicle is in violation of the ordinance (determined by the microphones and decibel meters), two of the cameras take pictures of the vehicles license plate, the photo is adorned with a time date stamp along with pertinent information, and then brought to the attention of dispatch to process as they wish. Signs would also be needed.
Oh wait! I bet that there is a setup like this someplace in the U. S. We would just have to find some “artists” to paint the signs.
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