Leavey Library - The LA Flood Project (sitios de interés)

Stage 1
On any given school day, during the peek points of the semester, this lot in front of Leavey is a showroom floor of Beach cruisers with names like Firmstrong Urban Lady and sixthreezero Scholar, Bella, Boutique, in blue, cream, and, of course, pink -- colors that accentuate the bleached and tanorexic, chillaxedly mobile undergraduate academics from Huntington and Laguna Beach. As one unlocks her bike, the third she's purchased this year -- so much thievery on this inner-city campus -- she spots the drop of rain on her seat, glances down at another on her new jeggings, and frowns her face in that way shat her mother warned her she'd regret the day she turned 40 if not before, considering the fate of her cousins Ashley and Amber on her father's side, of course.

Stage 2
Rows of bicycles now toppled, have sunk to the bottom and have formed a colorful metallic reef, a Beach cruiser shoals of chrome plated steel. Daily Trojans collect in the spokes and ensnare cell phones that float by like schools of fish. A fresh Spring-look caramel leather strappy shoe shorn of its 3" heel tells an only too common story of rapid flight in fashion-forward splendor.


Stage 3
The water receded, the bikes emerge as a hulking, rusting tangle of chrome and leather. Wheels and frame mangled together by the weight of the Army amphibious units that plowed into campus on the third day of the rains. Now the Möbius curves of bicycles stands as rusting public art, a testament to an easier time, where young folk sailed to classes only worried about the calorie count of their green-tea lattes.

MCM