Last night, in the middle of the night they demolished the Berwyn Spindle, an artwork of cars and commentary in a Berwyn strip mall that was once bedecked with simlar works. Local efforts to save it and the fact that it was the suburb’s most famous landmark did not help.

Well, they helped enough that the demolition occurred in the middle of the night, like a crime. It reminds me of other middle-of-the-night demolitions, from the sheds behind Dearborn Station in the 70s, the DeKalb Post Office in 1990, even lots of suburban teardowns where the owners know the neighbors will object. Demolition at night, under the cover of darkness, a wholesale admission that what you are doing is wrong, or at least viewed as wrong by society.

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