Punk Rock Art Photo: "Still Life (W/Mattress Tag): DC Style"

<That mattress tag, in closeup.>
<Photo: The Reckoner>

<i.>

"Now this is an item," I told myself, while strolling around 16th Street and Park Avenue NW in Washington, DC's Columbia Heights area. Why would anybody bother to graffiti tag a mattress -- one of two, in fact -- being set out for discard on the sidewalk? 

That's what I found myself staring at Saturday afternoon, though, during the first weekend of my business trip. That's one thing I love doing, whenever I do get to travel -- just wandering around, taking whatever shots appeal to me of the local color that I'm soaking up.

I wondered what kind of story lay behind this particular tag. I'm used to seeing them in streets, and train yards, but, again...why bother doing it on something that's (presumably) headed off to the county landfill, somewhere? Presumably not, since the grocery stores charge 10 cents per (plastic) bag, to prompt customers into bringing their own reusable bags. However...

<Those mattresses,

full and side views,

16th St. and Park Ave. NW.>
<Photos: The Reckoner>

<ii.>

...as it happens, trash is a major issue in D.C. And, judging by the info in the links below, so is recycling, an enterprise to which the city has remained committed, in fits and starts, anyhow. The irony of hauling away 53 tons of trash for incineration in Virginia -- including 132 truckloads of plastic bins deemed to be a public safety hazard, due to chewing by rats, as the May 2014 Washington Post story indicates -- needs no greater elaboration.

In fairness to D.C., it's hardly the only major city that struggles with recycling, a topic that often generates warm and fuzzy feelings -- until talk turns to the nitty gritty details of how to fund it, what kinds of rules will prevail, and who administers them. As the ILSR overview of D.C.'s solid waste history suggests, the city has a long way to go before it can call its efforts good.

A few details will suffice to make the point: D.C.'s overall recycling rate (35 percent) lags well below the 70 percent and above that other major cities have achieved. Similarly, D.C. pays $120 per ton to recycle, a figure that seems prohibitively high, compared to the figure cited for Baltimore (a princely $20 per ton). At any rate, read the overview for yourself, and make up your own mind about what's going on, and what should be done.

<The inevitable art shot, with

a little help from Picasa.>
<Photo: The Reckoner>

<iii.>

Now that I know a little of D.C.'s solid waste history, I can guess why someone did tag that mattress. It plays into that age-old impulse, I imagine, to say: Here I am. I wanna be known, I wanna be somebody, so pay attention. This is me. I exist. 

No matter that it's going off the sidewalk in short order (as it did, by the following Tuesday, 7/10, three days after I shot these images). Maybe the tagger's from the area, and maybe not. Whether he or she ever saw their handiwork again doesn't matter (unless they're the type snaps a photo for their files, which I doubt). The point is, I did. You did. We all did, as we passed by, if only for a few seconds. 

And maybe that's enough. Andy Warhol's celebrated 15-minute cycle of fame is now, often, a matter of seconds. But in today's parched climate...we take whatever we can get. It's life as the ultimate smash and grab raid.

So that's why I clicked away, snapping these shots. As I did, a bald black guy in his thirties or forties -- I couldn't tell for sure, exactly -- stopped, and looked intently at my activities.

"Hey, man, it's an art school shot!" I said. "The art school dance goes on forever!"

The guy threw up his hands, smiled briefly, but mechanically, and walked away quickly. I could see the wheels turning in his head: Just what I needed. Crazy white people! --The Reckoner

Links To Go
Institute For Local Self-Reliance:
Brief History of Solid Waste 
Management and Recycling in Washington, DC:
https://ilsr.org/brief-history-of-solid-waste-management-and-recycling-in-washington-dc/

The Washington Post:
 DC Said It Was Recycling -- It Wasn't (May 2014):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/pictures-show-dc-may-have-dumped-trash-cans-that-it-said-were-being-recycled/2014/05/20/1f4c2a24-df9a-11e3-810f-764fe508b82d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3aea26ab5423

(Heads up: Link longer than usual, as I had to log in as a guest to read the story, and get around the paywall -- you may have to do likewise.)