Perhaps, while cycling or walking along the junkyards, you’ve seen the hefty hollow metal pole that goes for a bollard as the Chavez Loop extension of the Bosque Path crosses Prosperity Avenue in the deep South Valley:

As many have pointed out, the bollard doesn’t look like any other multi-use path bollards around town. It’s too tall, it has that smeared laundry detergent varnish appearance, and it really looks like something Charles Bronson would find lying on the ground to pick up and obliterate a Nazi or union buster in a movie.

But, at Chavez Loop and Prosperity Avenue, it’s a bollard. We make do down here in the South Valley. It’s also a bollard that is mysteriously often not in its bollard hole, instead nicely placed as seen above. It is unclear who is doing this, which makes sense because, otherwise, it wouldn’t be a mystery.

Maybe it’s a County employee working along the path. Maybe it’s a rider of a recumbent bike or trike who feels it needs to be out of the way. Maybe it’s a bike rider who is indirectly pointing out that smeared laundry detergent finish isn’t easy to spot from a distance, and that this half-ass bollard needs yellow paint and night-time reflectors like those fancy locking bollards you see around the area, but not necessarily in the South Valley.

It’s a mystery.

What the Better Burque Tactical Urbanism Team (BBTUT) did yesterday morning is no mystery, however. First, we put the bollard back in its bollard hole:

Feeling it too dangerous to have a hefty, yet hardly visible metal pole sticking out of the bike path, BBTUT’s John Fleck expertly spotted an empty Friskies cat food can in a color approaching AASHTO/MUTCD-compliant yellow.

The half-opened lid of the can o’ Friskies helped as an adhesive, and your Tactical Urbanism Team felt the great satisfaction of a passably good job done passably well.

We’ll see how long the hefty pole, Friskies can included, stays in place. If your Labor Day includes an overwhelming desire to see if this Friskies can ensemble survived to this point, here’s a map if you’re unfamiliar with the site:

Better yet, if you’re going out there…could you bring some hi-viz yellow paint, a brush, and a reflector or two? The Tactical Urbanism Team could really use some *supplies and we’d be much obliged. So would everyone else riding Chavez Loop past the lovely junkyards to/from Rio Bravo and thereabouts.

*Speaking of supplies, if anyone has $500 lying around and wishes to assist the Team in its Tactical Urbanism efforts, we won’t stop you.