Tiggeriffic Decrepit
So this article about abandoned homes in Detroit being painted a bright shade of orange had me thinking. The artists themselves recognize that by painting the houses, they are drawing attention to the problem and soon the houses are torn down by the city.
This all made me think: by shining the spotlight on a problem, it encourages action to resolve. Basically, drawing attention to one of those dirty things that no one wants to look at. What else could this approach work towards?
Every morning at about 8:30am and then again in the afternoon at 4:45pm (sometimes at noon as well), I walk out of the office and usually pass at least one street person asking for money. It’s one of those things where whatever you do, it just isn’t enough. There’s no way to guarantee that the money goes towards anything good, and even if it does, you see them again and again. Soon enough, your eyes avert, your face goes blank, you look right through them. We’ve all done it.
Wonder what would happen if they started wearing orange overalls? Something to make it impossible to look past what’s in front of you? Something distinctive that would force a spotlight, require action from something larger then just a passer-by. What about if the Sydney Tar Ponds was a nice shade of electric lime? or Halifax Harbour for that matter? Instead of being dark and easy to confuse with murky water.
When the group was here judging Halifax for their city bid for the Commonwealth Games, apparently the streets the committee drove on had been cleaned meticulously the night before. Makes sense, but I bet they didn’t see a guy standing anywhere in Tiggeriffic overalls or a harbour that looked like Kool-Aid either.
I envisioned this post as being better
The owner of the buildings next to the Holiday Inn on Robie St. used the “garish colours” tactic a few years back when he wanted to build a highrise or somesuch there. Those houses are long gone.
Homeless people probably don’t want to draw undue attention to themselves, mainly because if they do then we’ll ignore them for sure. What is the alternative? Make the city “clean them up”? Right, that would look good. Didn’t they do something similar with Africville? “Ok, you guys have to leave now.”
Comment by Jean-Paul — 22.2.2006 @ 9:15
The point I was trying to get at was that it’s easier to ignore or to even drop some spare change then it is to actually deal with the underlying problems that cause poverty and homelessness. I think it goes without saying that any current work to date hasn’t been successful in fixing this problem on Canadian streets, so perhaps something needs to be done to force the issue. I guess I was speaking metaphorically about the overalls, but the connation remains the same, if you can force the issue, make it impossible for those in the power to avoid it, then they will have to deal with it.
An ‘Africville response’ is obviously not a resolution, but neither is the status quo.
Comment by forbes — 23.2.2006 @ 1:07