LETTER: Object added to park looks like a 3-D sign designed by AI

To Ozaukee Press:

The derivative “I (heart) PW” 3-D sign in Coal Dock Park has no plaque identifying an artist, as sculptures do. Did AI design it? I talked with a man in the park who likened the aesthetics to McDonald’s corporate arches.

The misplaced aesthetic is set in a green-and-blue landscape, renaturalized from power plant operations. The commercial-looking sign was paid for by Cloverleaf Infrastructure, which, according to this newspaper, worked to bring the huge AI center to town, and another company that is doing taxpayer-funded work for the city.

The claimed $100,000 donation/tax deduction feels like a public peace offering, when what people need is not to be floating tech billionaires’ companies while drowning in personal credit card debt with essential bills piling up on kitchen tables. Our cost of living and the national debt ($40 trillion) are soaring thanks to Donald Trump, who invited tech billionaires to stand prominently behind him at his inauguration.

I’ve been thinking recently about Port Washington’s now deceased alderman, John Sigwart. I did not know him, but I think he is the standard for being a model public servant. In 2024, Mayor Ted Neitzke stripped him of his committee assignments after he revealed to Ozaukee Press that the mayor and Common Council members signed a nondisclosure agreement with an anonymous microchip manufacturer that eventually backed out but paved the way for the AI data center to be built there.

It isn’t easy to stand up to any group, whether a powerful corporation or a small-town mayor and Common Council. As the Japanese proverb states, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”

The many are more powerful than one who stands alone with ethical conviction, as Mr. Sigwart did when he publicly revealed that the mayor and Common Council were colluding in secret. I propose Port Washington publicly honor Mr. Sigwart with a permanent plaque or memorial as an inspiration of courage. Loving Port Washington is paying attention and doing the right thing.

Nancy Camden

Mequon