Letters to the Editor, March 17 - Opinion - DailyTidings.com - Ashland, OR

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Letters to the Editor, March 17 Saturday Mar 17, 2018 at 2:01 AM Disband Arts Commission Now that the high-altitude “bicycle wreck” sculpture has been installed at the junction of East Main Street and Siskiyou Boulevard as a tribute to the need for bicycle safety, we have an opportunity below it to memorialize those who developed Siskiyou Boulevard in the first place. All along, that would have been the proper tribute. But our problem is that with so many transplants fleeing their now degraded communities we have a large populace without a sense of Ashland’s history, some of whom obviously ended up on our Public Arts Commission. That commission should be disbanded as a waste of money and their role taken over by the Historic Commission. The history of Siskiyou Boulevard seemed to have been overlooked as something fitting for a memorial in that location. Rather than spending cash on more “wacked out” art projects, we should continue with the attempted beautification and maintenance of the downtown with transient occupancy funds. The Plaza needs more planters to define seating areas. Parts adjacent to the Plaza need re-landscaping, and we need more historical plaques on downtown buildings. We also need to continue repairing our damaged sidewalks. As for the “bicycle wreck” sculpture, it is a tribute to the non-universal appeal of art. But again, there is room below to install something historic, as historian George Kramer urged in the first place. Brent Thompson Ashland