Obama signs temporarily replace Bush signs
By: Will Reisman
Examiner Staff Writer
January 21, 2009
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| The street sign for Bush Street at Montgomery Street has been changed by a vandal to say Obama. |
SAN FRANCISCO — When Barack Obama was sworn in Tuesday morning as the nation’s first black president, his vision of change for the country was culminated in dramatic fashion.
That message rang particularly clear in San Francisco in more ways than one, starting with a literal change on The City’s streets made by a vandal.
Signs marking Bush Street, which happens to be the surname of the country’s former president, was temporarily marked over with the last name of the president that would soon succeed him, Obama.
The freshly minted Obama signs, which covered both sides of the structures featured the same font and print as the pre-existing Bush Street signs.
Cars passing through the intersection didn’t seem to have any problem navigating through the altered signage, and a few curious passers-by elected to snap up photos of the new moniker.
“I think it’s great,” said Oakland resident Laura Page. “I just think it’s in the spirit of the day. There is a lot of excitement and I think people are looking forward to a new era.”
Despite Page’s enthusiasm for the impromptu changes, city officials were called on to rectify the new street signs.
By 11 a.m., workers from Municipal Transportation Agency were in the process of taking down all the stickers, although an Obama Street sign still remained at the intersection of Bush and Battery streets.
The adhesive that was used to attach the cardboard to the street signs made it difficult to clean up, said Judson True, MTA spokesman.
Crews from the MTA spent the day cleaning up the signs on Bush Street from the Financial District to Presidio Street.
“We are still working on a cost estimate,” Judson said. “But the damage to some of the signs and the need to replace others puts this more in the category of vandalizing city property rather than a humorous political stunt.”
No criminal investigation will be conducted into the alterations, according to Sgt. Lyn Tomioka, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department. Tomioka said the department first received reports of the changes at 7 a.m.
The sign changes along Bush Street are neither a first, Tomioka said, nor rare.
Some of the Bush Street signs were altered Nov. 4, Tomioka said. She also said that other cities across the United States were reporting similar vandalism.
