by Joe Courter
There has been an absurd sequential point-counterpoint going on with a small, humble stretch of sidewalk at SE 5th Ave and S. Main. It had already been having a hard time with neglect and abuse, but then parties unknown chose to make it pretty, by ascribing each of the seven panels with color. Yes, you guessed it, a representation to that famous mnemonic Roy G. Biv.
It was nice, the colors of the rainbow on that old, bare concrete. That lasted 3 weeks, then out came the city workers, two trucks, six or seven guys, and a gasoline-powered power washer, which proceeded to be run for eight hours, until only a slight remnant of the colors remained on that now cleaner-than-ever old concrete.
Guess what, the rainbow colors return 2 weeks later, and like clockwork the workers returned. But this time it was different. That nice well-prepped concrete was happy to hold on tight, as this time it appeared to be spray paint that had penetrated into the concrete. Hours and hours, gallons and gallons of water and high-pressure spray, but Roy G. Biv was still showing through.
Does the city give up? No. Do they just choose to paint it over? No. Out came concrete grinders, hours and hours of loud noise, flying dust, and hours more work for the able bodied city workers. Now the color is mostly gone, the surface showing obvious grinder trails of varying depth, not very pretty actually, and there we are.
Will Roy show up again? Who knows, it’s a free country, they tell us.