City’s spinning tops head to recycling bin
The expiration of time played a role in two topics before the
City Commission this week: The big artistic tops that brought smiles to many in West Palm parks saw their days come to an end, but time left on downtown parking meters will give new life to an initiative to help the homeless.
More than 180,000 people rode the colorful carousels, the interactive artwork known as Los Trompos that graced West Palm’s waterfront lawn and later, Gaines and Howard parks. They were among the most popular works commissioned for the Art in Public Places collection.
But after a year of use and hot sun, the spinning tops’ pinks, oranges and blues faded and their mechanisms fell into disrepair. The city stuck them in a dusty maintenance boneyard beside the Hurricane of 1928 mass grave.
Now the city is spinning the tops into the recycle bin.
Rather than pay Mexican artists Hector Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena $60,000 to repair artwork the city already spent $100,000 to buy and transport in 2016, the city gave them the option to remove and reclaim the 20 tops.
The artists’ $60,000 repair estimate, which didn’t include travel expenses for five skilled workers or the likely need for structural repairs, was too high for West Palm tastes, so the City Commission voted to instead to be done with the whole deal. The artists didn’t want them back, so at no additional cost to anyone, the tops will be hauled away as scrap metal.
Despite their demise, Los Trompos was “an absolute success!” Art in Public Places coordinator Sybille Welter said Wednesday.
“The spinning tops created an incredible summer experience for residents and visitors with an astounding 179,600 people visiting downtown West Palm Beach to interact with the installation. The works traveled to two parks, where they were received with equal admiration.
“Los Trompos provided an opportunity for our community to be part of a shared and engaging experience,” she said. “...People like to be astonished and amazed and they want to play. Really, I think it’s that simple ... Isn’t it nice to be de-stressed once in a while?”
Meanwhile, downtown drivers shouldn’t hunt for a parking meter that has time left. It doesn’t work that way anymore.
West Palm’s 200 smart meters have sensors that identify the arrival and departure of each car. When a car pulls out, the meter resets to zero.
That’s now good news for the city’s homeless population, though. By vote of the City Commission on Monday, the value of leftover meter time will be contributed to homelessness initiatives of the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development.
According to Parking System Administrator Ed Davis, from April 2016 to May 2018 the meters recovered time left 24,449 times out of
40,752 resets. That left 7,178 hours and 19 minutes of “recovered time.” The first transfer amounted to $12,456, he said.
“We continue to make improvements to parking, inclusive of the installation of more smart meters,” Davis said. “While the technology is helpful to build in more accuracy and efficiency in our parking systems, we did not want people to lose the opportunity to ‘pay it forward.’ City residents and visitors can now be assured that any recaptured time will be put to good use and stay right here in our community.”
The city has a few special orange meters planted downtown for people to donate to homelessness initiatives but fewer people give than was anticipated, Mayor Jeri Muoio said.
The idea to help the homeless through leftover time evolved from public comments, which Davis fields a lot of, positive and negative.
Some people told him they leave time on the meters to benefit the next person. “I took that with a grain of salt but it did make me think. I talked to staff and this is what we came up with,” Davis said.
The mayor, whose staff has launched several initiatives to address homelessness, said she loved Davis’ idea. “It’s a really good use of that money,” she said.