Where are our chess tables?

Or, to say the same thing differently: where are our chess tables?

After a semi-confrontation with Brian over the value and future of public art in Raleigh, I drove down the "new" old Fayetteville Street yesterday to view the vast improvement Our City Fathers have bestowed on Our Fair City of Raleigh. I hoped to clear my head of the negative thinking I had been accused of by my dear friend and hoped for an epiphany that would let me see the goodness of the proposed art project. Unfortunately, since no one knows what form that public art project will ultimately take, nothing happened.

What I did notice was the absence of my two favorite pieces of public art from the former--or "old"-- Fayetteville Street. The two stone chess tables that used to be on the promenade in front of the CP&L Building were gone. They had been "disappeared".

I would have hoped that after spending all that money and having sweat blood and tears--or sudado la gota gorda, as we say these days--the City would have agreed to at least leave us the pleasure of our chess tables.

If the City cannot put them on the promenade, how about putting them in front of the Court House? The lovely flower pots will protect players from traffic. They, at least, will please some of the people and guarantee that at least some small good comes from all that planning, expense and work.