In St. Paul, a stop sign is more than a stop sign

I think that I shall never see … a poem as lovely as a stop sign?

With apologies to Joyce Kilmer, stop signs in St. Paul city are looking downright pretty nowadays.

In the past few months, the city has taken the unusual step of making public art out of nearly 100 stop signs — thanks to artist Lisa Elias, the city's Residential Street Vitality Program (RSVP) and about $110,000.

Elias designed about 90 of the stop sign posts, going with a floral theme featuring a curving, graceful motif. They were made with a self-weathering steel that appears to be rusty but isn't, she said.

The idea, she said, is to get people to stop — and look at an everyday object they might otherwise take for granted.

"My eye for it was being mindful of what can we do in a public space," said Elias, who was rushing Friday to get ready for a show of her art this weekend. "There are posts everywhere, signs everywhere. I wanted to be thoughtful about how we approach this."

According to Dave Hunt, marketing and media relations coordinator for the city's Public Works Department, 65 to 70 stop signs were replaced in the city from August through September.

Hunt said that the city only replaced signs where it was doing street reconstruction, and then only signs that needed replacing. Signs that were still in good condition kept their existing — if somewhat boring — sign posts.

Artsy stop signs have been placed on the West Side and in the Macalester-Groveland, Merriam Park and Hamline-Midway districts, Hunt said.

Totals for the stop sign project: 96 new stop signs at a cost of $110,335, Hunt said. That includes about $250 per post for installation by Public Works crews, about the same installation cost as a regular sign post, Hunt said.

Funding for the project comes from the city's public art ordinance, which mandates that 1 percent of the city's costs for capital improvement projects be spent on public art.

St. Paul has budgeted about $1.3 million for public art since 2010, including $297,000 this year, according to city budget documents.

The RSVP program has been around about 30 years and seeks to improve St. Paul's streetscapes, streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, lighting and signage. The goal, officials say, is to eventually reach every street in the city with beautification efforts.

Other examples of RSVP public art include Everyday Poems for City Sidewalks, original poems etched into sidewalks all over town. More than 700 poems have been stamped into wet concrete in the last six years, according to Public Art St. Paul.