At least they’re popular with Clark Asks readers — although probably not in the way intended.
They are a series of trash cans in Vancouver wrapped in brightly colored placards offering themselves up as potential advertising sites through a firm calling itself Trash Can Ads.
A question about the cans received the largest number of votes this month as part of Clark Asks, The Columbian’s reader-guided reporting project. But that curiosity might focus less on the cans’ potential usefulness to advertisers as their status as an eyesore for everybody else.
“What is up with those hideous new garbage cans all over Mill Plain near Chkalov?” asked Darcy Hoffman of Vancouver. ” Advertising for advertising? Who authorized this bad idea?”
Hoffman’s question received 357 votes to capture 45 percent of the votes in a three-way poll to determine which of the three questions The Columbian’s reporters would tackle first.
The second place story was, “What is the oldest restaurant in Clark County?” submitted by Zeed Meyer of Vancouver. It received 121 votes.
The third place story was, “Why do helicopters fly around the Fairgrounds neighborhood creating obnoxious sound levels almost daily? Is it a flight school?” submitted by Greg Olsen of Salmon Creek. It received 77 votes.
If your favorite didn’t come in first, don’t despair. Runners-up often end up in future voting rounds or reported on anyway. That happened with a recent story by Anthony Macuk exploring the fate of two creepy looking buildings near the historic Providence Academy building in Vancouver.
In other recent Clark Asks stories, Jeffrey Mize explained the complexities of why there isn’t regular Amtrak commuter rail service between Vancouver and Portland. Earlier this fall, Calley Hair determined the fate of two of the four totem poles — and a piece of other artwork — that once graced the Totem Pole restaurant in Hazel Dell. We also recently revisited a popular early Clark Asks story by Tom Vogt that explained why we have so many streets with “Plain” in their names.
Each one of these stories started with a question from readers to our Clark Asks page. Share your questions with us and see what we can find out.
Source: https://www.columbian.com
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