Poll: Approve New Light-Pole Sculptures?

The five citizen volunteers who presently constitute the El Cerrito Arts and Culture Commission face a momentous decision – whether to approve the revised to be mounted on streetlight poles on San Pablo Avenue.

They're holding a and possible vote at 7:30 Thursday night at City Hall.

To help gather public input, we're asking our readers to cast your votes in the poll below. We also think your comments in the comments section could be helpful.

Approval of the $100,000 project, which would be placed on El Cerrito's main commercial thoroughfare and be the city's most prominent public art, has been delayed in large part because the first proposal by the artists – Saori Ide and Jonathan Russell of Berkeley – was . Differing significantly from the proposal now being considered, the first plan called for brightly colored, simple images of people and objects on 50 streetlight poles on San Pablo.

The current proposal calls for abstract copper sculptures that would move with the wind mounted on 12 streetlight poles. They would be located 20 feet above the sidewalk and enclosed by C-shaped stainless steel frames that would be 4-1/2 feet in diameter and designed to echo the relatively new bike racks installed on San Pablo.

The artists' 27-page proposal and renderings of what the sculptures would look like are attached to this article. Details and background about the project can be found in our previous articles by clicking "San Pablo Avenue Streetlight Pole Sculptures" next to Related Topics below this article. For alerts on future stories on the topic, click the "Keep me posted" button below the article.