When the civil unrest recently witnessed in Ferguson and Baltimore finally arrives in Pittsburgh, rioters in East Liberty will have little difficulty finding rocks to throw...
Thanks to the developer of the new Hotel Indigo and Indigo Square a large supply of baseball-sized rocks was recently delivered to the site on Broad Street and installed along the sidewalk
Based on a chart provided online by Elmore Quality River Gravels, the recently supplied East Liberty rocks would be classified as "Big Ones" meaning between two to four inches in size
According to information provided by Stoney's Sand & Gravel, "2 1/2" Ballast" more accurately describes the new type of rock placed on Broad Street. "It is primarily used for erosion, but would make a gorgeous landscape rock as well. It would make a beautiful creek bed or be gorgeous in your flower beds." There's no mention on Stoney's website of how it would feel to be hit in the head by the 2 1/2 Ballast or how much it would cost to replace a storefront destroyed by the rock when it is used as a projectile
Thanks to Google Street View the evolution of Indigo Square over the past decade can be observed. In 2007 the landscaping between the sidewalk along the storefronts and the sidewalk along the street consisted solely of harmless green grass
Four years later the grass had been replaced by shrubs and fresh mulch (and temporary construction fencing)
The most up-to-date street view of the Indigo Square site displayed on Street View shows the same shrubs and mulch along with a gray-colored substance that appears to be dead leaves
These are the most current views of the site, taken today May 15, 2015
To get an accurate sense of the size of the Indigo rocks, and to quench my thirst, I bought a Coke at the William Penn Smoke Shop across the street
The stupidity of using baseball-sized rocks during a period of racially-charged civil unrest in a dangerous, low-income area to cut the small cost of paying a landscaper to maintain mulch is only eclipsed by the epic multimillion dollar boondoggle known as the Hotel Indigo and Indigo Square.
When the revolution comes to Pittsburgh, do us all a favor and leave the free rocks alone. Be like this guy, Banksy's Flower Thrower
