Lost Art

Ignore the mess & scroll down a bit for an inkling of serious aesthetic activity in the megadysopolis of sunny etc.

[M]otorists were left scrambling to figure out on their own how to find the 5 North turnoff from the 110 North (if you knew it was there at all).

That is, until artist Richard Ankrom's infamous August 2001 installation "Guerilla Public Service."

Ankrom took two years to design an exact replica of the Interstate 5 logo, as well as the word "NORTH" in an identical font to Caltrans signs. Then, in the middle of a sunny day, Ankrom -- dressed as a Caltrans worker -- installed the markers on an existing "110 North" sign.

And then... nobody noticed! The helpful signs finally directed 110 drivers to the 5, and yet Caltrans didn't have any idea. Nine months later, the Los Angeles Downtown News finally broke the story.

Fully Pointless Disclosure: We have lived on Franklin Avenue.