photo courtesy of wmchu on flickr
I’ve ridden my bike across the Golden Gate Bridge hundreds of times, and often stopped to watch the sunset or to look down at the awesome power of the tide ripping by, but yesterday, for the first time, I walked all the way across. I noticed something I’d never seen before.
On the south tower, tucked among all the brass plaques noting the officials and feting the feat of construction that is the bridge, there was a monument to Pacific Gas & Electric, thanking them for donating all the lighting for the bridge.
I was standing with my friend, who’s an electrician, and who wryly noted that it’s PG&E that really won in that deal — the free lighting fixtures just translates to another guaranteed customer.
But what I was thinking was, gee, there was all this dust-up and opposition to any corporate sponsorship of the bridge to raise a portion of the $60 million for future repairs. Despite assurances from authorities that the bridge wouldn’t be renamed or adorned with company banners, it seems that nobody was interested in having the name of a corporation anywhere near the bridge or its immediate environs.
And here we have a corporation that has a long, litigious relationship with San Francisco, that costs taxpayers and ratepayers millions of dollars, and that regularly tries to purchase our goodwill through massive greenwashing campaigns and big dollar donations — and their name is bronzed right onto the bridge.
Nice. Classy.