Are they supposed to fly over the crosswalk?
Shocking news out of Spokane, a famously boring city in the eastern half of Washington state – the eastern half being the dull, dry, not so scenic, next to Idaho half. You don’t expect much shocking out of Spokane but here it is all the same.
Lime, a popular electric scooter and bike rental service
Lemme stop you for a second right there. It’s not popular with me. I hate the damn thing. People ride the scooters on the sidewalks [pavements in UK-speak], endangering pedestrians who aren’t expecting them and can’t hear them approaching because they’re SILENT. They’re a menace and should be illegal.
Lime, a popular electric scooter and bike rental service, has announced it will be implementing a “no-go zone” around a crosswalk painted with a large Pride flag mural in Spokane, Washington. The crosswalk has become the center of much discussion after the arrest of multiple teens for making skid marks on the painted pavement.
In other words multiple teenagers have been arrested for riding scooters in the street. Not on the sidewalk but in the street – the “painted pavement” meaning the painted bit of the street that is the crosswalk. That’s where scooters belong: in the street.
On June 6, the Spokane Police Department announced the arrest of three teenagers on charges of 1st Degree Malicious Mischief, all in relation to the alleged vandalism of a Pride flag-painted crosswalk at the intersection of Howard Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard.
If you don’t want it smeared with tire marks why did you paint it on the street???
And while we’re at it, why does “Pride” keep getting this luxury attention when other despised and rejected sets of people don’t? Where are the flags for workers? Women? Brown people? Atheists?
According to the press release, “911 received a complaint advising multiple subjects on scooters were causing damage to the newly painted Pride mural.”
It’s on the street. If you don’t want it damaged why paint it on the street?
The release continued: “Officers observed widespread damage as black scuff marks consistent with scooter wheels were observed across the entirety of the mural. The area is clearly marked to keep traffic away as it was just re-painted to repair previous damage.”
Attached to the release were two photos demonstrating the extent of the damage, both of which showed faint black marks on the street painting consistent with thin tire marks.
Again. It’s on the street. If you want it kept pristine, maybe don’t paint it on the street.
The alleged vandalism, which was claimed by many to be motivated by homophobia, resulted in an outpouring of condemnation from Spokane’s LGBT community and those purporting to be LGBT allies.
We painted a pretty decoration on the street and now it’s faintly smudged by tire marks. Arrest the culprits!!!
But the arrest, along with the seemingly minimal damage caused to the crosswalk mural, has also prompted widespread mockery on social media.
Yeah no shit. Tire marks on the street: EVERYONE FREAK OUT IMMEDIATELY.
Meanwhile we stupid boring female people wonder for the billionth time why we never get this kind of frantic furious sobbing attention, rape statistics or no rape statistics.
While discussion surrounding the incident continues to rage on, the scooter rental company at the center of the alleged “acts of vandalism” has now issued a statement.
“All of us at Lime condemn these vile acts in no uncertain terms,” Lime Director of Government Relations Hayden Harvey told The National Desk. “At a time when our teams at Lime are beginning pride celebrations around the globe, it is disturbing to see the hate taking place in Spokane.”
Oh shut up. It’s tire marks on a street. Just shut up.
Lime has now implemented a “no-go zone” over the crosswalk, meaning scooters driven over the mural will be remotely shut down. According to the company’s website, entering a “no-go zone” will cause a Lime vehicle to “gradually come to a stop,” forcing a rider to walk their scooter until it is outside the zone.
Oh really. They can do that. Well then how about making the god damn sidewalks a “no-go zone” so that your god damn scooters don’t injure or kill pedestrians?
David Thompson has an excellent post on the subject:
Though it occurs to me that the pretentious weeping currently underway could have been avoided by not painting one’s weird religious symbols on the chuffing road at a busy intersection. As if that were a perfectly normal thing to do, and in no way an irritant or an invitation to mischief.
And then, inevitably, the sly conflation:
The alleged vandalism, which was claimed by many to be motivated by homophobia, resulted in an outpouring of condemnation from Spokane’s LGBT community and those purporting to be LGBT allies.
At which point, readers may wonder whether the children’s scootering, and the wider disaffection for the increasingly cluttered and kaleidoscopic Pride flag, may have less to do with “homophobia,” as claimed, and rather more to do with a symbol that is now associated with creepy, compelled unrealism, fantasy pronouns, and the steering of children towards experimental drugging and surgical mutilation. The kinds of things that many people, including many gay people, might find a little contentious, or alienating, or morally repugnant.
Or all three.
My pedant self notes that a mural by definition goes on a wall.
Your pedant self is right.
If Michelangelo were still around, he would no doubt be kicking himself for not painting The Last Supper on a street somewhere.
I wonder if any of the pearl-clutchers has considered that the kids might be leaving tire tracks on the painted intersection not because it’s alphabet soup-signifying but just because it’s painted, so tire tracks show up better there than they do on unpainted street parts.
I bet if they painted a different intersection different colors they’d do the same thing there.
Also, why are they picking on these kids? Is it just because they’re easier to catch than people in cars who also leave tire tracks on the intersection?
The aerial view is remarkable because it looks like the trans invasion with its brown and black shields has almost finished off the rainbow.
The google map image must be previous to repainting – it shows what the paint job will look like in a month or so no matter what these kids do.
*gasp*
The Channeled Scablands! The path of the ridiculous Missoula Outflow events! How dare you!
I know. I’m a horrible spokaniphobe.
Papito: As a former teenager myself, who has apparently not succumbed to the amnesia that has engulfed so many of my peer group, I can confirm that the most likely motive for this was not, “Hate the gay/trans”, nor even, “Stand up against trans bullies”, but very much “Because it’s there”.
@Omar, bringing out the pedant in me,
Michelangelo didn’t paint The Last Supper–not on a wall, a floor, a ceiling, or anywhere else. That was Leonardo. You’re probably thinking of the Sistine Ceiling.
My father went into military service just after my parents married. After basic training, there were two spots open for him and a colleague: one in San Francisco and one in Seattle. The colleague took the SF posting, and so my father got Seattle. Only for some reason at the last moment the posting was shifted to Spokane. My mother cried when she learned about that, though eventually they came to like Spokane.
And scooters on the sidewalk are a plague.
WaM @ #8: Pedant.! Anyway, I was away from school the day we had Art. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.!!
;-)
One of forced teaming’s intended, premeditated payoffs; protection against criticism for
Let my simple mind think this through. A group is supposedly so oppressed that the city spends thousands and thousands of dollars to mark a street with that group’s chosen emblem. Kids, naturally drawn to bright and shiny, mess around on it (as somebody noted, tire tracks show up better on bright colors). The entire political and media community use this “violence” as a way to get more attention and an excuse to spend even more TAXPAYER money on this supposedly oppressed group.
No names were called, and no punches thrown. Nobody from the supposedly oppressed group was driven from their home or job or social media. The imaginary violence is an excuse for those in power to force this group’s emblem and dogma even farther into the lives of people who just want to be left alone to live their own lives.
That supposedly oppressed group seems to not really be the group suffering the oppression, IMHO.
Nice street you got there – shame if something happened to it…
In fact, now you mention it, it strikes me it could be considered entrapment. “Look, kids, shiny! You’re under arrest!”
@7
Or because of a dare.
Or because: “bet I can make a better skid than you” “Oh yeah?”
One semester, I had a class where it was all young males. The final day, we had lab clean up and a pizza party. The young men used the class computer to show YouTube videos of themselves speeding, squealing tires, and making skid marks right outside the school.
I’m going for “because it was there” or the above quoted “bet I can make a better skid than you”.
The first amendment allows for the burning of the US flag, but you must not disrespect the sacred rainbow symbol in any way. It’s the holiest of the holy.
I would defend Spokane a bit. For one thing it’s got an amazing riverside art quarter around the falls. An actual downtown. A miles long bicycle path partly along the river up to Coeur d’Alene. And a beautiful residential area designed by the Olmsted Brothers. (South Hill) The terrain is more pine trees and some serious hills. Sure, it’s not 50 degrees and dreary overcast ten months of the year as you west siders might prefer, but…,
More on topic: insane pearl clutching and virtue signaling here. Given rebellious teen tendencies, what did they really expect?
Fair enough. I withdraw my rude remarks about Spokane. I’ll have to take a peek at it via Google Earth.
Back in “my day”, a rather popular pasttime for high school and college age males with cars: donuts in a parking lot. I’m guessing it’s still a thing.
Were those road painters creating an “attractive nuisance?”
I would think it would also defend the defacing of the symbol of a hostile power.
Not the point, but isn’t a crosswalk the place where pedestrians cross from one side of the road fo the other? I was expecting to see something like a technicolour zebra crossing. But the painted part of the road is the huge square bit where the two roads intersect. It’s the busiest, most dangerous bit of the road – you’re not all flitting diagonally across that area, whith cars coming at you from all directions, are you?
Painting colours like that on the road are very distracting for road users. Road markings should be clear, simple and consistent. Roads are dangerous places with tons of metal whizzing along at 30, 40, 50mph, and the drivers should have the minimum of puzzlement of what does that road marking mean?
Good point, KB. Part of the design is an unbroken white line, and drivers know we aren’t supposed to cross those. I bet it causes some drivers to swerve towards the middle of the intersection.
There’s been a couple of crosswalks (pedestrian crossing in NZ English) painted with pride or rainbow design here. Members of Destiny Church (shudder) painted over them in white paint leading to at least one prosecution for vandalism.
The comments above got me thinking. The legal definition of a pedestrian crossing in NZ is that the road is marked with alternating white and. black stripes, at each side there is a black and white striped pole topped by an orange circle, and six metres in advance there is a white diamond marker painted on the road.
There’s no mention of alternative road markings like rainbow designs. Does this mean the roading authority has breached the law painting an alternative design? If there is an accident at a modified crossing, does the non-conformance potentially excuse the car driver?
Another potential issue with the paint: slippery when wet.
If the paint they used is like the paint used to paint crosswalks where I live, it could be.