a little practicality

     One of the reasons we have so much public art--statuary and such--here in Philadelphia is that there is a special tax requiring it. New buildings and other large construction projects are required to set aside 1% of the cost of construction for public art. Art is nice, but we have a lot of it, and you can't eat it, after all. Perhaps we could amend the law so that 1% of the cost of new construction is set aside to fund housing for the homeless, or to rehab abandoned properties.