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Politics & Government

'Canoe Sign' in Limbo ... Again

It's an issue that won't die. MAC asks if the county can sell the sculpture back to the artist.

Some people want it displayed proudly, others would rather let it sink to the bottom of Lake Chabot.

The fate of what’s known as the “canoe sign”—a bright, bold, 19-foot-wide steel sculpture that very briefly stood on Redwood Road—resurfaced at Monday night’s Municipal Advisory Council meeting.

Rachel Osajima, director of the Alameda County Arts Commission, told council members that re-installing the sign would cost somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000. And flying the artist who created it—Sheila Klein—out from Washington state for a consultation and to get her approval about possible alternate sites would run another $3,300.

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Councilwoman Cheryl Miraglia called that “a bogus number” offered to discourage council members from pursuing relocation.

The council had asked county staff to look into alternatives at a March 21 meeting.

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Osajima said she did not contact property owners of possible relocation sites to check on availability before her report to the council. She spoke with the artist to see if she’s willing to fly down to review them first.

“So we’re going to fly her out here for $3,300 and see if she liked the sites without knowing whether we have any sites available?” Councilman Marc Crawford asked.

In a unanimous vote, council members gave Alameda County staff eight directions:

  1. Offer to sell the piece back to the artist, which the contract allows for, and consider any reasonable offer. 
  2. If Klein says no, ask the county's legal counsel if there are options to dispose, sell or recycle it.
  3. Find out whether the piece could be installed at the Castro Valley Library, at Lake Chabot or the Community Center.
  4. Find out if moving it to those places would constitute a "substantial relocation," which the contract with the artist says requires her approval.
  5. Have the county submit a detailed, itemized estimate of how much it would cost to re-install it.
  6. Have the Art Commission come back to a MAC meeting with a report on the above items.
  7. Organize a final public outreach based on the report's findings and survey the public so Castro Valley residents have a clear idea of the options available.
  8. Bring back information from that survey to MAC members so they can make a final decision on the matter by 2014 and bring closure to the issue. 

"We seem to be getting the runaround," Miraglia said. "Until there's some direction by someone ... an informed decision cannot be arrived at."

The $100,000 sign—painted blue, yellow, orange and forest green—lasted only a week in the open in 1997 before residents clamored to have it removed, repulsed by what they called a garish display.

Some even threatened to tear it down themselves. A number of residents said they never got a chance to share their input about design, despite several articles in the local newspaper and public notices. But not everyone hated it.

Last September, a resident asked council members to consider re-installing the piece, even if it wasn’t at the original site. The argument: It cost a lot of public money in the first place and, even though not everyone loved it, to some it has a funky charm.

In a survey sent out last year about the piece last year, 369 responded. Of those, 208 said they're against relocating it. The rest, another 161, wanted to see it in a new location, out in the open.

Right now, it it’s tucked away in a county warehouse in Dublin. It doesn’t cost anything to keep it there, according to the county.

But for a sculpture designed to last forever, it’s a shame to hide it, according to residents like John Lindon, who helped resurrect the issue last year.

Also at the meeting

Based on results from the U.S. Census Bureau's decennial count in 2010, Alameda County's supervisorial districts have to be redrawn to reflect population changes.

Council members agreed to endorse a redrawn district as long as it includes all of Castro Valley's general plan area in the same district.

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