It's so hard for me to bite my tongue and not go on a LONG rant about this failed project. 

Back in mid-August, the intersection at 8th and Fulton in Downtown Boise closed to commuters allowing artists to work on Boise's first ever street mural.  Unlike the murals that you see on walls in Freak Alley or the parking garage Saint Lawrence Gridiron, this mural was being painted directly on the bricks forming the intersection.  According to KTVB, ACHD gave the City of Boise the go ahead to use paint to create temporary public art to enhance the community.  During what was supposed to be a year long pilot project, the city would examine how public art like the mural at 8th and Fulton impacted both pedestrian and vehicular traffic, how well the art held up and what it would take to remove it when the time came.

Unfortunately, the first pilot project was a complete fail. If you went to go look at the blue and green geometric mural yesterday afternoon, it was absolutely destroyed. Our friend Don at BoiseDev talked to Terri Schorzman from the Boise City Arts & History Department about why the mural isn't holding up.  She attributed it to the rainfall we've had over the last couple of days, how the intersection was prepared for painting back in August and the materials used by the artists. By looking at the damage, you can tell that the flaking paint is worse where car and bike tires touch the paint. They'll workout the figures on how much it will cost to remove the mural soon.

Michelle Heart, Townsquare Media
Michelle Heart, Townsquare Media
loading...

The reason I draw this to your attention is because the money for the project came from tax increment financing.  Don explained to his the members of his BoiseDev Facebook group that means that the funding was property tax dollars collected from those inside the district boundary. So basically, tax payers paid for this failed attempt at public art and likely removal without getting a say in it.

With that in mind...would you like to see the public art pilot project continue or should we call this a wash and never, ever try something like this again. Vote below!

More From Mix 106