Together again ... for almost the last time.
Racine's 2009 Summer Art Project's Adirondack chairs -- formally known as the Sunny and Chair Summer '09 Tour -- came together in Monument Square Thursday afternoon, a prelude to Saturday's auction which will split them up forever.
The 55 chairs that have been displayed Downtown all summer were collected from around Downtown, in preparation for the sale Saturday afternoon. They will go on display in Monument Square at 2 p.m. and the voice auction begins at 3 p.m. to raise funds for the Downtown Racine Corporation which puts the arts project together each year. Auction details are here.Terry Leopold, right, DRC's director of special events, has high hopes for the auction -- in part based on the interest the chairs received all summer and also because of the chairs' ... well, usefulness. The most successful of the summer art project auctions have been the first one, dogs, and the lighthouses. Least successful: the spheres and bears. "People didn't know what to do with them -- and they were so big," Leopold recalled.
But the chairs... well, besides being beautiful, you can sit in them! There will be 18 sold at voice auction, and 37 via silent auction. Prices begin at $350.
At $350.00 on up per unit, they'll be budget-busters for most of our people. Then, again, the filthy rich clan responsible for this farce never cared about ordinary folks unless it could exploit their labor through temp agencies or entice them to purchase its lower-priced products. During an economic crisis, an event of this type is an obscenity.
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:54: If you don't want one, then don't buy it. Case closed. For the rest of us, this was a nice event during the summer; it brought tourists to town -- who shopped at our stores, ate at our restaurants.
ReplyDeleteNot everything -- even in an economic crisis -- must be directed toward your interests.
As for the Johnsons, the Wax-Trash label is not deserved at all. Sam was more of a philanthropist than you'll ever know, and so are Helen and Gene; any organization needing money got it; more good jobs have been provided; better care of employees is not available anywhere here (and damn few places elsewhere); the buildings SCJ redeveloped bookmark the city; the money for Next Generation Now, 21st Century Prep School, etc.
Why don't you find a target worthy of your hatred? These attacks are not deserved.
For the record: I am not a Johnson; nor do I work at SCJ. I'm not beholden to them in any way.
8:54 - Cheap, Cheap, Cheap - go back to your rat hole and let the rest of us enjoy this event which does bring in revenue to the city and helps the downtown merchants survive.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is responsible for one of the chairs. I very much enjoyed watching her enjoy every moment of labor she put into the chair. Best of all the cost to her 0 dollars. Thanx
ReplyDeleteRight before the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette and her clique were obsessed with arty furniture while the common people starved. A community which leads the state in minority infant mortality and poverty has no business playing with nonsense.
ReplyDelete9:37 - They were all a great addition to the downtown this summer - thank your wife for her hard work.
ReplyDelete9:51 - do something about it persoanlly rather than just whining here. What specifically have you done to improve the concerns you have?
ReplyDeleteDear Al, The fact that an oligarchic tribe occasionally performs a decent deed shouldn't blind us to the crimes of the corporate oligarchy as a whole. The guilty Gilded Age robber barons remain what they are even though they sometimes cut checks to schools. (Let's face it, the only reasons the rich support educational institutions are tax deductions and the desire for a docile workforce. A certain family obtains well-indoctrinated elitist executives from Precious Airy Academy and obedient office help or temp labor from the other, less-prestigious schools it maintains in our sorry city.)
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous 9:55 A.M.,I have done very little because I have very little. Only those who possess serious money and the power it gives them in this evil system should be required to contribute to society. Until we give all our citizens a level playing field and a social safety net,we shouldn't demand anything from ordinary people.
ReplyDeleteDear 8:54 A.M., Given the minimum price of the chairs, I doubt that too many prospective purchasers will have cash left over to spend in local stores and eateries.
ReplyDeleteDear 9:25 A.M., If our capitalist system didn't reduce most of our people to penury and poverty, they could afford to buy the pricey chairs as well as help our downtown merchants survive. As for telling the poor to return to their rat holes, that type of arrogance spawns revolutions. Equating the less-fortunate with rodents will only make them angrier than they were before.
ReplyDelete10:30 - You are the rodent I was referring to. You are a miserable and sad individual. There is no hope for you. Enjoy your sorrow, no one else cares.
ReplyDelete10:12 - it takes no money to volunteer at the food pantry, or at the literacy council, or Family Services, or Goodwill, etc, etc, etc. You are just a cop out - you whine, but do nothing to improve things in the community that youare so concerned about.
ReplyDeleteDear Al, Believe it or not, I don't hate the Johnsons. What I despise is the arrogance and cruelty of our capitalist elite, a class to which they belong. If taxation and wealth caps knocked the viciousness out of our oligarchs and rendered them harmless, I could tolerate them and their antics. It would also be nice if the high-and-mighty private sector predators would stop dodging their property taxes. To people outside the cushy confines of the upper-middle class, buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his emulators are pricey status symbols which should be taxed accordingly.
ReplyDeleteDear 10:33 A.M., Calling people rodents--particularly when they're poor and have plenty of good reasons to hate a bad system--won't solve our problems. If you ever saw angry paupers loot and burn a business district, you'd think twice about using abusive language. Back in 1967, Detroit's notorious Cass Corridor exploded in violence when thousands of oppressed people settled accounts with the advantaged classes. Later, in April of the following year, the poor torched shops and restaurants frequented by solovent suburbanites. Alas, I witnessed both of these urban insurrections. Please, for everyone's sake, DON'T insult and goad OUR less-fortunate residents!
ReplyDelete10:33 - you've tried that material once before - how about some new material - the rodents are restless -ha,ha!
ReplyDeleteDear 10:37 A.M., Sad to say, a person has to have money or the leisure time which cash gives its lucky possessors to do the great things which you recommend.
ReplyDelete11:07 That is really BS - you do not have to have money to volunteer and obviously you have the time since you are positing out here. When you start to do something constructive in the community, then maybe we can take you seriously.
ReplyDeleteDear 11:07 A.M., If you'd like different material, just research the history of this municipality. Back in the eighteen-hundreds, we had violence galore. During the Great Depression and the nineteen-fifties, Racine experienced strike-related violence. In the early and mid nineteen-sixties, we endured race riots and wholesale looting in our downtown. I know you're trying to be funny, but references to the poor as restless rodents could incite them to carbonize Racine.
ReplyDelete11:27 Yada, Yada, Yada!
ReplyDelete11:27 - You did not answer my 11:15comment. Is that because you do nothing to improve the community - just spend your time whining?
ReplyDeleteDear 11:15 A.M., YOU try volunteering when you're crippled due to arthritis, can barely walk, and receive no support from the government.
ReplyDeleteInstead of saying I can't - find a way to say I can. That is what real people do. They don't take the easy way out and expect the goverment to bail them out. I'm done with you - you are hopelesly miserable. You are dismissed!
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous 11:27, We'll see who has the last laugh. This deeply-divided community is on the verge of a socio-economic upheaval which could make the riots of yesteryear resemble high school cafeteria food fights.
ReplyDelete11:39 - I'll get the last laugh because you are responding to your own post - Take a look at the 11:27post ha!
ReplyDeleteDear 11:39 A.M., Who the heck are you to dismiss anyone? As for taking the easy way out, if people didn't seek less difficult ways of performing tasks and surviving, our species would never have invented the wheel. Finally, I believe that seeking government assistance is honorable for disabled and severely-disadvantaged people. Believe me, the oligarchs won't miss the cash our tax collectors obtain from them to fund social programs. In fact, our local fiscal fiends could disgorge double the present amount and they'd still be able to play with their replica SICK=orsky seaplane and other toys.
ReplyDeleteDear 11:47 A.M., No, THE POOR will have the last and best laugh when they roast Racine's arty-tarty downtown and the so-called historic district. Although I'm not a psychic and I can't provide you with an exact date, I CAN tell you that rising unemployment rates and despair will provoke the people you've dubbed "rodents" to punish the elite of this Mickey Mouse town by destroying its snob snuggeries. In the mean time, enjoy the Waxies' mini-Versailles before the peasantry and its lower-middle class allies take care of business.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't the bickerers exchange phone numbers or email addresses and quit writing such hostile, non-productive comments on this blog. A lot of poor people got that way because they were brought up to not give a damn and take from others. The cycle has to break before they can expect to rise in socioeconomic class. They will only appreciate something if they've worked for it themselves. Everything the government throws at them will only serve to keep them lazy and complacent. There's a huge mission field in Racine. Get out there and share the Gospel!
ReplyDeleteGet a time machine and send that message back to Emerson--he'd have liked it. For your information, the poor people I know work long hours for low pay. They are NOT lazy and complacent. You've been taught to blame the poor for their sad situation because the rich and the upper-middle class don't want to pay taxes to help them. Also, the treasure tyrants who run this sick system don't want ordinary people to see that it's a money-ocracy instead of a meritocracy. If the corporate porkers send your job to Dragon Country,YOU could be POOR. Stop bashing this system's victims and start changing the system!
ReplyDelete