As I look for convenient places to lock my bicycle while travelling around Toronto, it's hard not to notice the many abandoned bicycles in various states of decay, some stripped down to the point where all that remains are the frame, the chain and a u-lock binding it to the post and ring. They sit there rusting away, a bit of an eyesore, usually for months until the city gets around to removing them. Recently along my regular morning route I noticed one of these sad corpses and the post and ring bike rack it was locked to had been painted gold sometime during the night. Was it the work of some latter day Goldfinger, a stealthy artist, or some doppelganger to those single-edged razor blade wielding women we sometimes see stripping posters off light standards? Well, yes and no.

In this case, a visit to the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) web site revealed that what I'd seen was part of a recent project entitled pedals & paint. On the evening of May 30, the site relates, "the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) and The City Beautification Ensemble (CBE, referenced here by Sally McKay), led a workshop in Trinity Bellwoods Park to teach people how to paint a bike and bike rack. We set out before dusk to make Toronto a more colourful place to live." Yeah, it was even a Bike Week event, although the Cycling Ambassadors chose not to attend--I can't imagine why. Some pics of an earlier CBE spray bombing run here.

Okay, so while a bit disappointing to learn that this was a co-ordinated action of some contrarian groovier-than-thou art kid collective, I guess it beats a fiberglass moose on every street corner emblazoned with corporate logos. On the other hand, if they're really serious about this why don't they just approach their local BIA and make a proposal?

Owen