Man Arrested for Painting Crosswalk

I’m not the only Portlander (or pedestrian) reading this story, Man Jailed for Creating Crosswalk, Vows More, who thought it might have originated in “my own” neighborhood. But this is an Everywhere problem. Let s/he who hasn’t been tempted to do the same as Mr. Stump step off the sidewalk first. (Dare I make the point that Portland is also known as Stumptown?)

Excerpt from the news story:

“Whitney Stump didn’t like watching drivers ignore the stop signs at the intersection outside his home, so he asked the city to paint crosswalks there.

When the city said no, he made one himself. And the city wasn’t appreciative.
Stump, a 27-year-old Ball State University graduate student and father, says he was arrested once on a charge of criminal mischief for creating the crosswalk at the intersection of Dicks and North streets. He was arrested a second time when he went back to touch up the paint.

“If they’re not going to provide a safe environment for me and my community, then I believe I have a moral obligation,” said Stump, who has spent 10 hours in jail for the crosswalk work.

Stump said he first asked the city to do the job, thinking crosswalks would get drivers’ attentions and make them aware they needed to slow down….
…

The city hasn’t covered up the crosswalk. Stump said he intends to paint crosswalks on the intersection’s other three spokes.” [Full story]

(My source, Law Librarian Blog. The story is also at KPTV.)

Anonymous says:

February 1, 2008 at 8:23 pm

I urge all citizens/ pedestrians of this country to do the same as Mr. Stump has done in Muncie. Muncie, Indiana is a microcosm of every middle class small town in America (just google “middletown studies”), and, just as many small American towns, it lays in a state of waste. The local governments of these kind of towns have no inscentive to care about the state in which these streets and homes are in. What small money these politicians make is just barely enough to encourage them to get up and go to work every day, nevermind actualy caring and fighting for the citizens welfare and well-being. I feel proud to say God Bless America when I see the citizens taking democracy in their own hands against the situated idiocracy which currently resides. Way to go Whitney!