Carlsbad Sculpture Park Not That Bad, If You Squint Just So

Critics rail against Carlsbad’s Split Pavilion Sculpture Park, but, from a certain angle, if you squint just so, it’s not all that bad. It has been described as a “12-foot, galvanized-steel barrier, a dangerous water hazard, some cheap and ugly pickle weed and the worst excuse for shade.”

OK, the bars are rather tall and certainly galvanized steel, but you can see through them, and they will last longer than the wooden fence in my back yard that threatens to collapse every winter. A close friend suggested that the city paint the bars some pleasant color, like seashell pink, mostly mauve or, possibly, cobalt and cornmeal, but I guess the arts commission reached an agreement with the artist, Andrea Blum, not to allow the work to be altered in any way. That’s too bad. The city is going to spend beaucoup bucks returning the park to its Blum color when the midnight Michelangelos find it.

OK, there is a pool of water in the park and, during the two hours I sat in the park Sunday afternoon, several dogs and children jumped into the water. That water is deep enough for a small child or someone from Iowa to drown in, but then so is the Pacific, and you can’t even lap that up.

OK, ice plant is cheap, but I, for one think we should begin to appreciate frugality in government whenever and wherever we find it. After all, the park only cost $400,000, and, by government standards, that’s a bargain. You can’t buy a plunger for the toilet on a stealth bomber for that kind of money.

Beyond that, you can’t expect to plant grass in a park by the beach unless you want to pay someone to mow it and fertilize it and clean out the transients, Democrats and retired educators who are going to want to sleep there. And the ice plant isn’t nearly as ugly as the state-owned slope west of the park. That is an eyesore.

All in all, the Split Pavilion Sculpture Park is user-friendly; it’s a pleasant place to spend even an overcast winter afternoon. Twenty-nine seniors, 12 bike riders, six skaters, five kids, four dogs, six Western and Heerman’s gulls and two band-tailed pigeons couldn’t be wrong.

LINDA CARTER, Oceanside