100 Years of Taxis and Flowers

So, the other morning I only caught part of the NY1 report on this project, caught it while rushing to get dressed and get to work, so it didn’t have my full attention either. What I heard was that as a celebration of 100 years of motorized taxis in the city they were putting decals of flowers painted by kids onto taxis.

Seemed a bit odd to me, but, whatever, I rolled with it. It kept in the back of my mind though, especially as I saw more and more of them around the city. And the more I thought about it the more it kind of bothered me- what did flower decals on cabs have to do with 100 years of motorized taxis? And these so-called kid paintings of flowers- they just colored them in as far as I was concerned. I guess I first noticed the whole thing going around Thursday as the flowered cabs drove by me, by Saturday I was ready to rant about it all in a post here. As I have learned though before ranting you should really investigate what you are writing about, you know actually read an article or catch a full news report…

Well, today I did my investigative research* and found the website about the project, which is called “Garden In Transit,” a Gothamist article about it from when it was announced last July, and the press release from Bloomberg on it. It is actually a pretty sweet (as in touching) project. It is sponsored by Portraits of Hope- They have provided all the funding for all of the decals and paints and such so that “children coping with medical, physical, emotional and socioeconomic challenges” can participate in it. According to the website:

This project will highlight - on a mass scale - goodwill, hope and triumph on a city, national and international level. Garden in Transit is an amazing collaboration of generations and communities that will culminate in a “moving” and jubilant field of flowers created by kids. The taxi will serve as an inspiring tribute to the capacity to achieve the spectacular.

Okay, yeah a little cheesy, especially the pun, but a nice gesture none the less. It just so happens to also coincide with the celebration of 100 years of motorized taxis in the city, so they say the two things are connected (though I am still a bit baffled as to how). It is a nice project and definitely livens up the yellow cabs in the city. Any cab driver can participate (with no cost to them), and volunteers are still needed for the program, you can sign up on their website.

The cabs will be displaying the flowers that were painted (there are 27,000 decals, so every cab in the city could participate if they chose to) for a total of 16 weeks, from now to the end of December.

*Okay, fine, I Googled Taxis, New York and Flowers, but I found what I needed