Crystal City adds roadway tramp-stamp
Last year, Vermont Avenue because the first street in DC to sport a fancy asphalt tramp stamp, and now Crystal City’s 18th Street in Arlington is joining the club, with a Steed Taylor-created “Labor Line”, as pictured above. The design appears to be an evolution of an earlier Taylor piece called Evelyn’s Knot.
Personally, I’m not sure I understand the value of the road tattoos, and the coloring of the asphalt, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
Comments
9 Responses to “Crystal City adds roadway tramp-stamp”
October 18th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Bush, Beth Ludwick. Beth Ludwick said: Crystal City adds roadway tramp-stamp: Last year, Vermont Avenue because the first street in DC t… http://bit.ly/cYXvIm via @welovedc #DC [...]
October 19th, 2010 at 5:48 am
[...] Road Tattoo in Crystal City – Earlier, we reported that a road in Crystal City would be “tattooed” by artist Steed Taylor. Now, the deed is done. “Crystal City adds roadway tramp-stamp,” reads the headline on We Love DC. [...]
October 19th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Looks nice, I hope no county funds (that we Arlington County tax payers pay) was used in this. I would rather have potholes fixed and white lane dividing lines painted rather than this stuff. I don’t mind it, I just don’t want to pay for it when Arlington must cut back on its library hours that its tax-paying citizens utilize.
Thank you
October 19th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Could you maybe not use the phrase “tramp stamp”? I think it’s a pretty sexist term.
October 19th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
@Mike: I don’t believe the Crystal City BID takes Arlington tax dollars, as BIDs are usually funded by the businesses in the region that benefits from them.
@Joe: I’m open to your reasoning why a voluntary lower back tattoo is sexist, but I don’t believe I was using it in that context, especially when I was referring to a roadway, and not a person.
October 19th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I actually agree and think that it’s unfair to label the road with any assumptions about its personality based solely on some visible ink. Maybe it was a dare. Maybe it was after a bad night in spring break visiting the highways down in Mexico. A time from when the road was younger. Either way, we shouldn’t judge the road’s past with such a careless moniker.
At least it’s not a butterfly tattoo. We all know what that means.
October 19th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I think it’s more judgmental than sexist but it’s an interesting question. Is it sexist because it is applied almost exclusively against women even if its primary motivator is a negativity about tattoos?
The word ‘tramp’ probably is enough to push it over into sexist, I suppose, since it plays along with the hypocrisy about male (stud) vs female (slut) promiscuity.
November 1st, 2010 at 9:21 pm
[...] WELOVEDC blog reports on the new roadway ornamentation on 18th Street South in Crystal City. It’s an ornamental design ground into the asphalt, [...]
November 1st, 2010 at 9:40 pm
[...] Upper Peninsula city is ranked 3rd as a place to raise a family, by Forbes. Great place to visit, too, along with the rest of the [...]