Friday, April 02, 2004
BIKES ON PARADE?
You may have noticed some new residents of Harrisburg during your commute over the last few days. The cows on parade art exhibit has spread throughout town. These cow statues designed by local artists are of many themes. The whole shebang started, I believe, with an exhibit at the Whitaker Center last year, and then featured the dropping of a strawberry cow on New Year's Eve. Well now that the weather has turned to spring you can find these cows everywhere!
And I wonder if they planned it this way or if the two cows I came across directly today are just a random occurrence, but both seemed to have thier location matched with their theme.
This bad boy is painted as a Harrisburg city theme with landmarks and buildings from town as it sits at the City Island Walnut St ped bridge entrance to the city, and looks on at the downtown.
This puppy is covered in pennies and other pretty "gem" stones, and is right in front of a bank on 2nd Street downtown.
Now cows are all good and dandy. There is a dairy culture in this part of PA with farms and such. And this exhibit is a lot of fun, I already see people stopping and checking out multiple cows along thier way, great.But just think what this type of thing could do for say, bicycles? What if the city decided to promote bicycling, and sponsored a parade of bikes throughout town. Artists could either design original bikes, or give custom paint jobs to beaters and other bikes found around town. (Here's an example) Then they could be placed throughout to be admired by all. Maybe this is too obvious to me, killing two birds with one stone. Offering a unique and original art exhibit, while promoting an activity that could lessen downtown parking and congestion issues. But I guess I do have a vested interest in such an idea. Does anyone on city council or government in town remember riding bikes as a kid? Does anyone want the children and commuters of our city and our futures to be able to enjoy the same thing? Let's start now. Promote bicycling now, bicycle commuting now! Bikes on Parade in 2004-2005!
And I wonder if they planned it this way or if the two cows I came across directly today are just a random occurrence, but both seemed to have thier location matched with their theme.
This bad boy is painted as a Harrisburg city theme with landmarks and buildings from town as it sits at the City Island Walnut St ped bridge entrance to the city, and looks on at the downtown.
This puppy is covered in pennies and other pretty "gem" stones, and is right in front of a bank on 2nd Street downtown.
Now cows are all good and dandy. There is a dairy culture in this part of PA with farms and such. And this exhibit is a lot of fun, I already see people stopping and checking out multiple cows along thier way, great.But just think what this type of thing could do for say, bicycles? What if the city decided to promote bicycling, and sponsored a parade of bikes throughout town. Artists could either design original bikes, or give custom paint jobs to beaters and other bikes found around town. (Here's an example) Then they could be placed throughout to be admired by all. Maybe this is too obvious to me, killing two birds with one stone. Offering a unique and original art exhibit, while promoting an activity that could lessen downtown parking and congestion issues. But I guess I do have a vested interest in such an idea. Does anyone on city council or government in town remember riding bikes as a kid? Does anyone want the children and commuters of our city and our futures to be able to enjoy the same thing? Let's start now. Promote bicycling now, bicycle commuting now! Bikes on Parade in 2004-2005!
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