EDITORIAL: Emoji in a park by the lake

Set aside for a moment the question of whether the 12-foot-high, red-and-white object insinuated last week into the green space of a park embraced by Lake Michigan has artistic merit.

The more important question is how could anyone with authority over the parks of Port Washington think this jarring intrusion belongs in Coal Dock Park.

The aluminum object, which has been described generously by some as a sculpture, is apparently meant to suggest a love of Port Washington and provide photo opportunities to exhibit it.

There may be a suitable site for it somewhere in the city, but it is not the park that is revered for its close proximity to the natural beauties of the water and the shore on a peninsula extending into Lake Michigan.

Coal Dock Park was made possible by the conversion of the We Energies power plant from coal to natural gas fuel, freeing a vast coal storage area bordered by the breakwater basin and the open water of Lake Michigan for use by the public.

The city, with guidance from landscape architects, began planning the park in 2009. It opened four years later, introducing the public to a green expanse bounded by blue water and crossed by walkways that take park visitors on a tour of ever changing, often stunning lake vistas.

So essential to the park’s character are its natural attributes that the city created a prairie on its eastern portion with boardwalks leading to lake overlooks where discreet placards commemorate famous shipwrecks. The prairie, with its robust variety of native plants, is adjacent to a bird sanctuary connected to the park by a bridge.

The only other man-made structures are the park’s signature fishing and viewing dock, a dignified memorial to Wisconsin’s World War II veterans and a small, gracefully designed pavilion built with funds donated in honor of a Port Washington boy who died in a tragic drowning accident.

The “I (heart) PW” fabrication erected as some sort of symbol of Port Washington is an alien presence in a place admired for its views of the city’s legitimate symbol, the lighthouse recently restored at a cost of $2.5 million.

As for the artistic merit of the new park feature, the “art is in the eye of the beholder” standard applies. Some viewers may behold it approvingly, while others will surely see it more in the framework of a commercial image inspired by a bumper sticker or emoji.

Sculpture or not, it is a copy of the New York City logo, essentially differing only in the substitution of PW for NY and the type font used.

The piece, now mounted on concrete, is a gift from two companies that have been paid tens of millions of dollars for services to the City of Port Washington.

One of the donors, Cloverleaf Infrastructure, bought nearly 2,000 acres of farmland in the Town Port Washington in 2025 and so far has sold 618 acres of it for $18.7 million to Vantage Data Centers, which acquired the land with the City of Port Washington’s assurance it would annex it as a site for data centers.

In the past two years, the city has paid the other donor, C. D. Smith Construction, $50 million for contracts to build its public safety building and upgrade the water treatment plant.

A gesture of gratitude is appreciated, but better it had been in the form of something that actually benefits the taxpayers who made the donors’ profits from the projects possible, such as, for example, a contribution toward the cost of stabilizing the Upper Lake Park bluff. Of course, at $100,000, which is said to be the value of the donation, it wouldn’t go far in helping to fund that costly project, but it wouldn’t offend anyone either.

Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke demonstrated his love for the “I (heart) PW” addition to the park at a Common Council meeting with the fascinating revelation that it is painted with the same white paint used for the lighthouse and effusive praise for the many promotional benefits it will bring the city by providing a memorable image for tourists to include in selfies and other photographs to be shown to friends as an inducement to travel here.

More a cliché than a distinctive add-on to Port’s identity, the image is one of the most copied city brands in the world. At least 50 American cities have co-opted it.

The copy wrongly placed in a lakeshore setting diminishes the aesthetic qualities that inspire people to love Port Washington.