The Chronicle‘s Maggie Galehouse reports that thieves have rendered one city landmark somewhat less than world class:
The lights of Mecom Fountain, one of Houston’s showiest landmarks and a bright spot on the city’s grandest thoroughfare, have been dark for seven months. Last fall, someone stole the fountain’s 264 light bulbs and the bronze canisters that encased them.
Why?
“Hard to say,” says Mark Ross, deputy director of facilities for the Parks and Recreation Department, which is responsible for the fountain’s upkeep. “Precious metal theft is in vogue for sure.”
[snip]
“It’s our Trevi Fountain, our Golden Gate Bridge,” says Peter Brown, the exasperated city councilman at large who’s been fielding complaints ever since the fountain went dark. “It’s the urban icon that helps define this city.”
[snip]
[T]he Parks Department estimates that it will cost $100,000 to replace the stolen lights and fixtures. That sum, which is steep by city standards, does not include labor and the cost of draining and filling the fountain.
“Currently we do not have funding identified to order the replacement,” says Estella Espinosa, department spokeswoman. “We plan to order it as soon as we get fiscal money for 2008, which will come in July.” But that answer isn’t sitting so well with nearby residents.
“The museums have complained to the city, people at Warwick Towers have complained, other residents have complained,” says Brown, who lives within walking distance of the fountain. “I think this is a sign there’s something wrong with the way the city works.”
The lighted fountain is an important city landmark, and it is embarrassing that it’s dark because a city that is enjoying record tax collections won’t pony up the money to fix it. Indeed, it seems like yet another case of simply ceding the city to vandals and criminals. Councilmember Brown is right to suggest that it’s a sign there’s something wrong with the way the city is working right now.
The conclusion to the story is even more embarrassing:
“When the lights were stolen, somebody had to get into the fountain with cutters and cut through all the cables,” explains Mark Ross, deputy director of facilities for the Parks Department. “Our guess is that they did it in the middle of the night, or during the day when everybody assumed they were maintaining the fountain.”
That someone succeeded in carting away all those lights and 12-inch canisters is nothing short of incredible, Ross says. “It’s like stealing a great big diamond in the middle of a museum in front of everybody.”
It does not seem world class when a city can’t protect its landmark monuments from such vandalism/theft.
