Which is my face, which is a building, which is palo alto?

It's general consensus that propriety interests are maximized in suburban life, but perhaps no where is this more ostentatiously stated than San Yates' public-private art venture entitled "The Color of Palo Alto." Yates photographed every house in Palo Alto and is now in the process of synoptically generating a composite color which will be made available as a formula for paint pigment in local palo alto hardware stores. Soon a projector will display a constant loop scrolling though each of the 17,729 photographs every hour onto a screen in Yates' downtown plaza studio. The city paid Yates $35,000; Hewlett Packard, $40,000.

In a city in which real estate functions as the primary economic generator, it makes sense that one would privilege the shade chosen, among all things, by homeowners as the most significant way to determine the color of palo alto. In fact, one cannot think of a better way to exclude into the picture of this community all those upon whom it daily relies to clean its houses, manicure its lawns, cook its food, babysit its children. 'The Color of Palo Alto' may be understood as the desire to conceive of Palo Alto without color.

Addendum: I think it fitting to recall one of the Palo Alto homes that will not be included in this can of paint. VTA bus #22 runs up and down El Camino Real all night long. In the winter, when the local shelters close and its too cold, as many as 40 or 50 people a night can be found on what is locally referred to as 'hotel 22.'