Why Are All The Sidewalk Poles in Fishtown Slowly Turning Into Number 2 Pencils?

The title of this post is the question I asked on Instagram today. And thanks to y’all, I got the answer very quickly!

In short, Fishtown artist and after-school art teacher Nate Walker saw the sidewalk poles (those poles installed to prevent people from parking on the sidewalk, many of which have gotten old and rusty over the years) as blank canvases in need of some love. And as NBC 10 reported this week on the story, after some community input Nate landed on the idea: “I really thought this was something everybody could relate to. Everyone had to use a No. 2 pencil as a kid, whether they wanted to or not.”

If my Instagram post alone is any indication, people are LOVING these newly painted poles!

I wonder if Nate and/or other artists will continue painting more of the neighborhood’s poles and/or repaint them with a new design in a year or so when these start to get rusty again? It’d be great if some (of the many new) local businesses moving into the neighborhood wanted to contact Nate to help fund this effort!