Waving The Orange Flag

The other day Autumn and I were driving through downtown Berkeley. Inevitably we were stopped at a red light, we were caught at one of the busiest intersections in the city. As the light changed and we came to a halt, an Asian kid with a crew cut stepped off the sidewalk and cruised past us with a big smile on his face. He had a day-glow orange flag on a wooden dowel in his hand. He began waving that flag frantically from side to side and twirled it over his head while he walked to the opposite curb. He looked positively idiotic shaking that flag around. When he reached the other side of the street he placed his flag in a shiny metal bucket that was fixed to a traffic signal and continued on his way. Curious.

I asked Autumn what that was about. She said so many pedestrians are run over daily while trying to cross the street that the city of Berkeley decided to place those orange flags at the busiest intersections. People could make themselves more visible to drivers while in the crosswalks. Apparently Berkeley drivers are in such a hurry to get from place to place and easily distracted so they manage to run over their less affluent brethren all the time. It's a chronic problem. Ironically, Autumn also mentioned that within the first day or two of making orange flags available to pedestrians, somebody using one was mowed down by a driver behind the wheel of an SUV.

A few more days passed. I noticed while Autumn and I were driving around the area that many intersections had buckets for holding those orange flags. Only thing was, they were all empty. Not a flag to be seen. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what must have happened to them. They were all stolen. I suppose the thing that sticks in my mind the most about this is, the city of Berkeley has the money to spend on goofy programs like this yet they can't seem to find any cash to feed the legions of homeless bums that patrol almost every downtown street.