I don’t know who, exactly, is in charge of grounds maintenance along the Riverwalk, but whoever it is deserves a big, humongous thank-you from all of us who enjoy the Riverwalk. The workers, too, do a great job. A prison crew very regularly mows the lawn, mulches and trims trees, and takes care of all sorts of other landscaping tasks. And anybody who's visited the Riverwalk knows that there's a LOT of landscaped acreage along that twenty miles! A crew of city employees keeps the benches and railings freshly painted. When I stepped onto the Riverwalk at 7:35 this morning, the city crew was already there, hard at work.
They even keep a fresh coat of paint on these red water spigot things. If I were William Carlos Williams, I might write a poem about it. Oh, wait! He already did that – sort of.
Graffiti …
Here today …
Gone tomorrow …
For real! I noticed the graffiti for the first time yesterday, and it was painted over this morning. I had a funny conversation with the city crew guy about it. I remarked to him that they surely did take care of the problem fast. He agreed that they did and asked, "And did you notice that whoever did it didn't even spell 'recession' right?!"
I admit to some degree of personal conflict on the issue of graffiti. That is, I realize that in some cases graffiti does rise to the level of art. (As a little d democrat, I hate the phrase "rise to the level of" in this context, by the way -- but I couldn't think of any other way to say it without going into my whole rant about "What is art?" -- and you don't have time for that right now.) I do think that there is a place for graffiti in the American landscape. I've seen some beautiful graffiti in New York and Chicago and other cities. I am a great admirer of the art work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, both of whom were graffiti artists at points in their lives. At the same time, I hate to see other folks' art (sculpture, for instance) defaced with graffiti. And I have some qualms with other folks' property being appropriated for graffiti, too. On a last note concerning graffiti, I have yet to see any decent graffiti herebouts in our area. There may be some, but I ain't seen it yet.
Issues
Really, the city crew does such a great job that I hate to complain about anything, but I’m going to mention two areas that need some attention, and my best guess is that they’re outside the venue of the city crew anyway. The two issues are 1) the directional map signs; and 2) the lamps.
The directional map signs are simply “weathered out.” They need to be replaced. Their metal bases are rusted and the actual map/sign part is so weather damaged that in most cases it’s impossible to read them. The “you are here” stickers have worn off, too. From our front porch we can see one of the large signs, and we have noticed that almost everybody who walks by, if they’re not a regular, stops and spends a good several minutes trying to decipher the information there.
I hope the fact that this sign is completely missing indicates that the signs are being replaced.
My other issue with maintenance on the Riverwalk has to do with the lamp posts. Well, really it’s with the lamp globes. When one is damaged, it’s a long time before it’s fixed. The two directly in front of our house have been in this shape for about a month now:
I’m pretty sure that the lamps are the venue of Georgia Power Company. At least, a Georgia Power Company sticker on each of the poles leads me to believe that is true.
I have much more to tell you about the lamp posts in a later post.
Eavesdrop report:
I didn’t get a chance to eavesdrop today because, once again, most folks I encountered were by themselves. I did see one couple, though – my friends and soon-to-be neighbors, Chuck and Cathy Williams, who were on their morning bike ride. So this is a shout-out to Chuck and Cathy, both of whom do all sorts of good things for our community.
I did have a conversation with Tricycle Man who told me that when he was 74 years old he walked the entire distance from "right here" (The Promenade Amphitheatre) all the way to the south end and back. He's 81 now, and he told me a lot more about that, too.
Water level:
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