Monday, August 31, 2009

The Boy Who Wasn't There


Alderman Matthew Petty, confessed tricycle thief and contriving mushroom farmer, has now declared himself to be an art critic. Critic, that is, in the sense of criticizing the selection committee that chose the winning design for the two bicycle rack sculptures to be built at the new Fayetteville District Court Building. His complaints, published as a letter to the editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times, charged that the other members of the selection committee violated the guidelines, chose a sub-par artistic design, and ignored the superior designs submitted by local artists to choose a New York designer.

Fair enough, perhaps. What Alderman Petty doesn't reveal is who were the dastardly members of the selection committee that deserve his scorn, for which of the submitted designs did each of the members vote, who were the outstanding local artists rejected by the committee, and which one of the local artists did he vote to receive the commission?

The fact is that Alderman Petty did not vote for the winning design or any of the local losers. He didn't even attend the only meeting of the committee and the one where they selected the design. Like they say, Alderman Petty, "if you don't vote, you can't complain." You owe the other members of the committee a public apology and your constituents an explanation on why you weren't there to share your artistic expertise and vote.

10 comments:

  1. .

    Welcome back to bloggin JT.

    I wonder what compels you to waste pixels on this
    nutbar?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you look at the dates, I think he was in the hospital.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perhaps if he hadn't stolen the tricycle and wrecked it, probably while on drugs, he wouldn't have missed it then.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Petty's letter to the NWATimes conveniently omitted the fact that he wasn't there. Uh huh.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No doubt Judge Moore would have been awed by Alderman Petty's arguments and quickly caved in on choosing the design Matthew wanted. Alas, it was not to be.

    ReplyDelete
  6. He is always good at criticizing other people after the fact instead of taking the lead in the first place. He did the same thing with Habitotes. Blaming everyone else is a habit he picked up from his mentor.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You can view the winning bike rack design here.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mr Petty's comments sound ABUSIVE to city staff from Planning and Purchasing who worked to make this process a success. That is the alleged grounds for removing a planning commissioner, so it must be grounds for recalling or removing an elected official that acts like an abusive asshole toward city staff and volunteers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Abuse? Excuse me while I choke on my granola.
    You mean the folks downtown who make recession-proof salaries (denominated in elsewhere $$) complete with bennies?
    Give me a break.
    After oh-so-nice Dapper Dan, The Tweeter is not worth the bytes this is written on.

    ReplyDelete