The pink, blue, white and gold bridge

WRITTEN FRIDAY MORNING: As I went past Huntington's pink bridge on Thursday, I noticed some specks of black among the pink paint. I told myself I would have to stop on the way to work on Friday and see if those specks were dirt or if they were holes the bridge painter didn't fill with paint.

This morning, I drove past the bridge and got a big surprise. Vandals hit it overnight. It looks like someone threw a bucket of white paint on it and poured some blue paint on it, too. I stopped to get a closer look. The new paint smelled fresh. And there was some gold spray paint on the bridge, too. Not graffiti style, just some spraying intended to mar the pink paint job. Some of the white paint and maybe some of the blue spilled onto the sidewalk, and small amount was on the bridge roadway.

I have no idea who did this. The person or persons who did it are at the least guilty of vandalism and defacing public property. Jason Sansom, who painted part of the bridge pink, at least received permission from Mayor David Felinton before painting the bridge. If you disagree with Felinton's decision, that's one thing. But Sansom worked through channels this time.

My first reaction on seeing the vandalism was that this is what happens when we start painting bridges and underpasses. It invites graffiti people to do likewise. But this was not the work of graffiti people. It apparently was the work of an angry person who took matters into his own hands. Although I was not wild about seeing the bridge pink, a pink bridge looks better than what we have now.

By the way, the black spots in the pink were places where the paint roller or paint brush missed. That tells me the job of painting a bridge pink and making it look good is harder than some people might think.

SUNDAY EVENING: One side of the bridge was painted today, but only the part facing 8th Street. It looks okay when you approach the bridge from the South Side, but if you're coming down the hill you can see where part was painted and part was not. I for one hope this was not the end of the effort. Especially since there are so many small pits on the surface that were not painted that part of it looks pink with large dots.