Not digging the pig

Once upon a time, saying “Get rid of the Hog” would have seemed sacrilegious in the hometown of the state’s flagship university. The porcine image adorns so much in Fayetteville, Northwest Arkansas and beyond. Forget New York’s ball drop on New Year’s Eve. Fayetteville’s had a Hog drop for several years. When a city fire truck speeds by on the way to a call, it’s likely to feature an image of a Hog on its ladder extension or an unabashedly homer “Go Hogs Go” on the front of a cab.

So it’s a little surprising that the idea of removing a Hog feature at Arkansas Avenue and Dickson Street has elicited so little in the way of protest.

That tribute to the University of Arkansas mascot has been around just 15 years. It was part of the needed renovation of Fayetteville’s famed nightclub/entertainment strip known as the Downtown/ Dickson Enhancement Project. Construction crews fashioned a 32-foot-diameter Razorback emblem in the intersection. It was a nice symbol for the connection between the city and the university.

The nonprofit Razorback Foundation paid $30,000 to the city for the work.

Like a portion of the student body over the years that, perhaps, spent too much time on Dickson Street and not enough studying, the roadbed mascot emblem never quite lived up to its potential. The brightly painted red Hog couldn’t hold its color, giving way to the friction of thousands of vehicle tires rolling across it. The intersection emblem was a nice thought, but it’s also been a bit of a maintenance headache. City road officials say it’s time for it to go, to replaced with a lasting material, and there’s hardly been a snort about its demise.

City officials say a Hog symbol can return if the University of Arkansas wants it, but that’s not in the plans for now.

Even Bootsie Ackerman, who ran the enhancement project and spoke years ago of the “pizzazz” the Hog would add to the streetscape, today recognizes the reality that the embedded emblem has fizzled.

We think Dickson Street and the university will be just fine without it.

Maybe the symbolism of a Hog getting run over time after time after time isn’t what anyone needs.