Little orange houses for you and me

This isn't really new, but I hadn't seen this explanation from the perpetrators/artists/movers-and-shakers before, and I liked it.

You see, Detroit is FILLED with abandoned houses that the city doesn't have either the time, money, or concern to do anything about. Filled. Some are squatted in, some house crack dealers, some have trees growing through their roofs, some are burned out. They slump and persist through stifling heat and shattering cold either being ignored, or offending, or just causing heads to shake in wonder.

So some people grabbed some Disney-certified Tiggerific Orange paint, and started painting a few of them in high-visibility areas, like next to freeways. Surprise, surprise, the city tore them down. From the letter sent to The Detroiter:

From one perspective, our actions have created a direct cause and effect relationship with the city. As in, if we paint a house orange, the city will demolish it. In this relationship, where do the city's motivations lie? Do they want to stop drawing attention to these houses? Are the workers simply confused and think this is the city's new mark for demolition? Or is this a genuine response to beautify the city?

It could be coincidence or it could be new awareness of a particular house fostering honest intentions in someone in the City bureacracy. However, the same thing happened twice to houses that had been absorbed by Tyree Guyton's massive art installation a few years back. Given that pattern and the stultifying pace with which the city tackles all its problems, I'm guessing they just can't stand to have anyone paint a big smiley face on their failure.