Guess I’ve got to double-back to the bizarro world op-ed penned by Euro-socialist David Walters for the Uptown paper of record yesterday. Walters is a skilled propagandist who once again is trying to shame Charlotte into embracing his mega-state vision.
Two words: Headless gumby. More specifically, while Walters is busy trying to build a case for spending millions on public art, a fraction of the billions spent on public transit, he cleverly avoids both the history of such spending in Charlotte and the genesis and true purpose of the South Blvd. disks he so loves.
I missed David Walters chaining himself to bulldozer to save Maya Lin’s $340,000 “Topo” holly bush sculpture outside the New Old Coliseum. Without reference to the big circular building full of bouncing balls, the bushes have no meaning — and that assumes the city-subsidized developer actually keeps them. Considering said developer had trouble paying their property taxes on time, do not hold your breath. Talk about your disposable culture. When the Uptown crowd tires of a toy, it is over, baby.
The fact is that Walters does not care about art, he just likes spending other people’s money while telling them how to live. This can be seen by his role as co-conspirator in scamming local taxpayers out of $142,500 for “Furrow” — Thomas Sayre’s variation on the “Harrow” he sold to the Indianapolis airport. Walters’ thinks the big disks are great precisely because they represent hundreds of millions of dollars ripped from the private sector and put to better uses, as defined by David Walters.
“Furrow” does not have to be original or creative or thoughtful or coherent because the piece is only meant to convey one simple message: Power. The power of the state to take your money against your will and then rub it in your face. With the David Walters of the world babbling like a chorus of Renfields in the bargain.
Art? A horror show.
Bonus Observation: Walters can pretend that “the manufactured opposition to the light rail line” is gone, but the fact is the $9.5 billion plan has already turned out to prove our three major criticisms 100 percent correct. The plan is more about land use development than transportation, the half-cent cannot pay for it all, and the bus system will pay to build trains. We’re not goin’ anywhere.
