Sunday, June 28, 2009

Trash Buckingham Fountain: Just Eight Bits a Day!

Chicago just spent a lot of money completely upgrading the surface paving all around Buckingham Fountain. A lot more will be spent after the fountain shuts down this fall to restore it to its original 1927 splendor. Reported cost: $25,000,000.

But for a mere dollar a day, you can turn all that work and beauty into a mere backdrop for your promotional appetites.
In a city where services continue to contract even as taxes and fees skyrocket and the mayor hordes billions into his slush fund TIF's to finance his beloved Olympics, the recycling bins you see here are being marketed as a solution for a city grown incompetent to provide adequate receptacles in its public places. Just throw up your hands and toss the problem over to an entrepreneur who provides the containers - free! - in exchange for getting carte blanche - if the situation at the fountain is any example - to paste advertising messages all over city landmarks. Couldn't we just persuade the mayor to get GoldenPalace.com tattooed on his forehead and be done with it?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

More receptacles for recycling is a good thing! I currently haul my recyclables to a recycle station a ½ mile from my house. This city really needs to improve its program and catch up with the rest of the country.

I really doubt these small advertisements will create the blight that you are claiming, but it certainly won’t help. I hope that “environmentally responsible companies” that are "building a green reputation," will do this by creating and displaying understated and sensible advertisements. I would like to see Free Green Can make a promise to keep their ads understated and classy… ‘cause Chicago like to keep is classy!

NYCliff said...

How about a face pic of da mayor on every can with a quote, "Hi, I'm trashing Chicago; but you can't, so put your stuff in here." (Admittedly, the quote may not be believable to most natives since it is a more complex sentence than he can usually manage.)

Lynn Becker said...

More receptacles for recycling are a good thing. It doesn't follow, however, that slumming up public monuments with cheesy ads is therefore also a good thing, or even a logical progression of the same thought.

What possible reason could there be, other than stupidity or greed, that those receptacles couldn't be placed on the perimeter of the walkway, instead of slammed directly against the fountain where they become an eyesore?

nrn312 said...

I vote for stupidity.

Terry Murray said...

Come to Toronto and see how sponsors of "street furniture" abuse their, um, sponsorship.