Avenue of the Giants

The real Avenue of the Giants is in Northern California’s Redwood National Forest. It’s a great drive. But so too is the emerging Roosevelt Street in Phoenix. I loved these giant pots ever since they showed up, so I decided to get the back story. The city bought 15 of them for $43,650 as part of a massive $2.5 million streetscape project, as azcentral reported last year. I hoped there was some cool story about a local artist. But no. Instead these pots are made from fiberglass and bought from a vendor in California, according to bloggers at Lamp Left Media. The trees are olives. The city chose olives because they are drought-resistant, and don’t give people allergies. Not everybody was enamored. But why pots? No cracked sidewalks and when the utility crews have to come in and dig up the street, as they invariably will, all they have to do is move the pots out of the way. OK, not as coo as I thought, but I still think the giant pots are cool. — Sean Holstege