What a damn shame.
More to come, but I saw during my morning bike ride that the street art on St. George Avenue has been removed/destroyed.
From the December Crozet Gazette
(bolding mine)
“VDOT does not have a policy in place to address murals and other art within the travel way on state-maintained roads,” read the statement. “We do not endorse the placement of art like what is in place in Crozet, but we will not use state resources to remove it at this time. However, in a situation where roadway art presents a safety hazard, such as creating a distraction for drivers or if it interferes with traffic control markings, it will be removed. When the road is repaved, VDOT will not replace the artwork.”
St. George neighbors were briefly jubilant until VDOT subsequently reversed course. In a second set of comments to the Gazette, Hatter said the street mural had been reclassified as a safety hazard after VDOT fielded complaints from local residents. “We have received some additional feedback from community members regarding the St. George Avenue street mural, and have heard that it’s a distraction for drivers going through the intersection,” he said. “We’ve also heard that children are attracted to the area and have been playing around it, which means it’s hazardous at this point. So, because of this new information, we have to treat the mural as a safety hazard and will be removing it next week.”
There you have it: Resident safety is trumped (deliberate choice of verb) by resident demand for unimpeded right of way. We used to say up in MoCo MD that no MDOT/MoCo roadway improvement happened until there were 3 fatalities.