Signs of the times

Signs Of The Times:

Renaming Wall Street Campaign by

Felipe Galindo

My public art proposal is about giving to Wall Street a new name.

The original has become a metonym for financial markets in America.

It originated when the Dutch ruled New Amsterdam, now New York City.

By the 1640's the street was the boundary between lower Manhattan and the rest of the island.

But since 1792 when traders and speculators formalized their association and originated the NY Stock Exchange in the area, money and its trade activities have been the main ingredient of such place.

New York city occasionally changes or ad a name to its streets, like Malcom X Boulevard was added to Lenox Avenue, itself part of Sixth Avenue which is also known as Avenue of the Americas.

And that’s the reason/soul of my proposal, since we all associate Wall Street with the "money" term.

My campaign will consist in providing the general public with an opportunity to participate in the renaming of the street and to give them some alternatives to vote.

I have 4 proposals:

#1 Change the name to Money Street.

#2 Ad a Dollar sign to all the lamp posts along Wall Street.

#3 A Dollar Bill as a sign along the dollar sign in the post.

#4 The Dollar sign along the new name.

What the project involves for me to do is to go dressed in a businessman suit to that area in

Wall Street, explain my campaign and request votes from the general public.

I will show my proposals on a board, with some renderings of how it will look.

I will include other proposed names for the street like Greed Street, Big Bucks Street, Ground Billions, etc. and ask for proposals from the public.

I'll have flyers for them to select the proposals and a box for them to put their ballots on.

A fellow volunteer artist will document the event and will be posted in YouTube.

Felipe Galindo, May 2011.