Hysteria builds over TransLink public art project
CTV News likes to play the populist card when it comes to running down cycling infrastructure.
So why not do the same for public art?
This week, the little Vancouver station owned by Bell Canada Enterprises took a shot at TransLink's plan to spend $165,000 on a public-art project by artists Rhonda Weppler and Trevor Mahovsky at the Main Street Station.
The UBC grads, who have achieved international recognition, are the same artists who livened up the formerly dreary pillars holding up the Cambie Bridge.
Their project, A False Creek, demonstrates what will happen when polar icecaps disappear and sea levels rise.
That strikes me as a pretty defensible inspiration for a public-art project.
The $165,000 expenditure on public art at the Main Street Station is part of a $33-million TransLink capital project.
That prompted Delta mayor Lois Jackson—not known as an advocate of the creative economy—to zero in on this tiny portion in an interview with CTV News.
Someone should tell Jackson and CTV that her support for a half-billion-dollar waste incinerator is a far greater concern for taxpayers.
Jackson and her allies at Metro Vancouver want to change a bylaw to make it more difficult to have mixed-waste material-recovery facilities in the region. They don't want anything interrupting the flow of trash to the incinerator, which can be converted into energy.
Meanwhile, TransLink and its allies in the provincial and federal governments have been screwing taxpayers for years by building multibillion-dollar rapid-transit projects in single-family or industrial zones where few people live.
The result has been a real-estate rush to places like Brentwood Town Centre in Burnaby and along the Cambie corridor.
It's great for the developers, but this doesn't do anything for poor students and office workers who are crying out for better transit service along Broadway, where demand has always been greatest.
TransLink's motto seems to be: "If you build it they will come—and forget about all those people who already live in densely populated areas, because eventually, a bus will come along with room enough for them to stand."
And CTV makes waves about a small art project that will brighten people's lives and possibly educate them about environmental degradation.
What a shame.
Comments
18 Comments
Andy
Aug 28, 2013 at 12:31pm
I like Translink art, I just hate it when it costs $165,000 and there's a broken escalator at broadway and commercial. I bet all the elderly, moms with strollers and those who otherwise have a tough time with stairs would appreciate the money going to something that improves their commute, instead of something pretty to look at while they wait for the elevator.
$171 Million
Aug 28, 2013 at 12:35pm
Where's the hysteria for the $171 Million Fare Gates that costs $15 Million per year to operate on a Sub Contract to large Corporations.
The same Fare Gates that will never pay for itself as it Costs far more to operate than any Fare Evasion by Translinks own numbers.
some Dude
Aug 28, 2013 at 1:42pm
I have an idea for a art peice at broadway/commercial. A giant blue and yellow hand with it's middle finger extended to greet the valued comtomers for a more viberant experience on that morning commute.And I will do it for less than 250 thousand
blah
Aug 28, 2013 at 5:24pm
Geez Charlie, your paper constantly whines about how Translink wastes money, and then you support this? Seems a little hypocritical. Any money for a so-called art project is money that could be spent for better transportation services. I guess the climate change aspect makes it all right though? Please explain your rationale for bashing Translink for wasting money and supporting Translink's spending money on something that has nothing to do with services.
blah
Aug 28, 2013 at 5:27pm
As you say "this doesn't do anything for poor students and office workers who are crying out for better transit service". Shouldn't this be the test for anything Translink does - including art?
Billy Bones
Aug 28, 2013 at 6:02pm
I'm guessing spending the money on art is better spending it on glock pistols and tasers for those transit cops, but it still seems a waste to me.
scooby doo
Aug 28, 2013 at 6:40pm
Charlie,
Are the escalators at the Broadway station working yet?
Natty
Aug 28, 2013 at 6:45pm
I don't think people are upset about the art project itself or even its cost, just where the funds are coming from. Last I checked, Translink's mandate was to provide adequate public transit and not beautification projects.
Guy Smiley
Aug 29, 2013 at 6:03am
You know what would brighten my life and stop degradation? A bathroom. Translink could spend the $650,000 they are using to put art at three stations and put bathrooms in instead. Bathrooms enrich the soul.
Hazlit
Aug 29, 2013 at 8:30am
Public art is an important, nay essential part of the urban experience. I have no worries about the cost. We spend far too little on art in Vancouver.
My concern is that it's probably not very good art. If Amaze-ing Laughter at English Bay is an example of Vancouver's idea of public art, then we need to hire a bunch of art historians to teach the selection committee how to recognize good art. Populism is one sure way to make BAD art.
Other than that--right on!