Signs of The Times

Speaking up, writing it down.

April 25th, 2012

I was quite surprised earlier this week on my morning bus ride to work. As I took my usual glance at the 'I Am Troy Davis' sign off the Bruckner Expressway -I noticed the scaffolding of a new sign etched over it. I bolted upright in my seat, yanked out my camera and shot it - only later realising that I'd caught the artist standing in front of the defaced 'R'. 

I zoomed in the camera image trying to figure out what the new sign would say, but could only make out the skeleton of the word 'free'. I didn't have too long to wait - by this morning it was done. 'Free Mumia 2012'.

April 27th, 2012

Closer to home, my neighbors are protesting the work on Pelham Parkway South service-road.The addition of a sidewalk (in itself a good thing) has resulted in a narrowed roadway which the homeowners have deemed dangerous. They responded with crude signs spray-painted on sheets and strung like bunting on their front porches. The sidewalk is now up, the signs are down; an adjustment to a new normal is underway.



In a closely related situation,The Pelham Parkway Preservation Alliance has been up in arms over the proposed removal of 80 century-old trees, one supposedly dating back to the Civil War. The tree removal will make way for more the above-mentioned road work. Protesting since 2010, the PPPA was actually able to get a restraining order against the city (a stay of execution for the trees), save 30 trees outright (cap the removal at 50), as well as get a say-so on which individual trees would be removed.

They have also secured the city's agreement to the replacement planting of 246 large saplings.

PPPA protesters

I don't know much about Troy Davis or Mumia except that their plights have fired someones outrage and prompted them to take action. I make no attempt to equate these protests about people with the ones about trees and sidewalks except to acknowledge that they both arise from the violation of something important to the people concerned. What moves the heart moves the hand. 

Pelham Parkway - city road with a 'country' feel. These trees may soon be gone.