Pizza is delicious. Crop circles are cool. But what happens when you put them together?
Pizza is delicious. Crop circles are cool. But what happens when you put them together?
This happens. And it is horrible.
A crop-pizza now covers six acres of Colorado farmland. It's directly under two flight paths leading into Denver International Airport, according to a recent article in the Rocky Mountain News. So when people peer out from their window seats, instead of looking down on the quilted tapestry of American land use patterns they see pizza.
It's the mutant cousin of billboards -- the sprawl of advertising.
Don't get me wrong: I love pizza, and crop circle art is really amazing. But there's just something about a six-acre advertisement for mediocre delivery pizza that makes me want to get drunk on moonshine, steal a tractor and destroy.
Maybe I'm overreacting. More likely, though, I am absolutely justified. This is blight, plain and simple. And it's a blight that should be wiped clean from the earth.
While the artistry and craftsmanship is impressive, it's a shameless bastardization of an artform that's been practiced on this planet for thousands of years. In honor of the history of human artistic expression, we should be ashamed. Planners especially should take warning: absurd advertisements like these have happened before and they are likely to happen again. Preventing the blatant commercialization of our landscapes is in the best interest of the public and its sense of human decency.
Update: Check out this far better use of cropspace to get out a message: http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=millersburg,+in&ie=UTF8&ll=41.539968,-85.728357&spn=0.006216,0.009656&t=h&z=17

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie
