Tax dollars at work

If you’d like a beautiful microcosm of spendulus, check out this use of Berkeley taxpayer dollars:

Decorative medallions depicting dogs sniffing, dumping and humping each other have recently been added to the base of one of a pair of sculptures commissioned by the city on either end of the pedestrian and bike bridge over Interstate 80.

At first glance, one might think the scatological series of bronzes – at the base of the west side sculpture celebrating the waterfront park – is a joke.

It’s not.

“I am showing dogs doing what dogs do at the dog park,” said Scott Donahue, the Emeryville artist who was paid $196,000 from Berkeley’s public arts program to create the sculptures.