The tiresome irate commentary on public art  seems to distract the populace from meaningful debate on real local issues.  

For example, we have a highly skewed and regressive property tax system that incentivizes sprawl over urban living, and city hall fees and policies that make it extremely hard to redevelop areas that are starved for investment and declining in population.  Each year the city increases fees on inner city building while debating whether or not to allow green field sprawl in areas so far from a fire station that sprinklers would need installed in houses to compensate.  

Yet much of the pre election debate relates to a roadside art price that cost each of the 1.25 million Calgarians about 40 cents each.  

this art piece is reminiscent of bridge piles.  Regardless of how much money was wasted on this installation, much deeper issues face the city, and these won't be debated during the election.