Say goodbye to a lumpy landmark

You may not have noticed, but the statue is gone.

This August, after 50 years as a weird, controversial and oddly fascinating landmark, Caltrans took the statue down and, essentially, threw it away.

Ah, but will it be missed?

Not by Caltrans or the California Highway Patrol, which got tired of repeatedly rousting sexual adventurers, vandals and homeless encampments from the site, and asked that the statue be removed, according to Jeneane Crawford, public information officer for Caltrans District 4, which includes the Peninsula.

The statue was designed and built by Louis DuBois, a San Carlos contractor and sculptor, and installed in 1975 at the Crystal Springs rest stop on the northbound side of 280. DuBois paid for the whole thing himself, at a cost of $2,000.

“The installation did not meet current Transportation Art Program requirements and had been a frequent target of graffiti and vandalism,” Crawford wrote in an email. There’s a Transportation Art Program?

The statue was “evaluated” for potential historical significance, which included consulting with DuBois family members, local Ohlone tribes and “multiple historical, arts and religious organizations,” Crawford said.

No one, it appears, fought for Father Serra.

It is just as well. I began commenting on the statue when I was still writing a daily column for the San Francisco Chronicle back in 2001, although that speaks more to my constant state of desperation for something — anything — to write about every day.

I described it then, and still would now, as lumpy. The statue was 26 feet tall, made out of concrete sprayed over a steel frame, and had little resemblance to almost any other depiction of Father Serra.

He was facing west, kind of kneeling, and his right arm was outstretched, a finger pointing toward the Crystal Spring reservoir, or the San Andreas Fault, or some other quasi-metaphysical metaphor. The way his robe draped over his right arm resembled the head of a donkey, “representative of the Father’s transportation,” according to a notice still posted at the rest stop. The notice adds: “However, it is said that he generally refused such rides.” So, there you go.

My past writings prompted others to express their own thoughts on the statue’s weirdness. One person asked why the rest stop had a statue of Yoda. Another said it looked like a guy in a bathrobe who was bowling. Still another said it looked like it had been sculpted out of mashed potatoes.

All reasonable descriptions.

For a while, it did become the object of whimsy. The statue sometimes would sport a football helmet — 49ers or Stanford. A huge football was teed up under his right finger. I think some of the young men from Serra High School also may have had some fun with the statue.

Serra is both a saint, having been canonized in 2015, and a controversial representative of European oppression of native peoples, none of which seemed a factor in the decision to get rid of it.

It simply became a nuisance.

IN CASE YOU WONDERED: The newly proposed congressional district lines contained in Proposition 50 make no changes to the Peninsula districts currently held by U.S. Reps. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, and Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose.

The proposed districts move lines around most dramatically in the far northern part of the state, the eastern regions and the southeast, all to pick up Democratic voters and tilt the partisan balance in districts that were more heavily Republican. Right now, there are 43 Democrats and nine Republicans holding congressional seats in California. If Proposition 50 passes and the districts hold form in the 2026 election, there will be 48 Democrats and four Republicans. The most recent report on voter registration shows California is 45% Democrat, 24% Republican, and 24% no party preference.

All of which illustrates a reality about California politics: We are an east-west state, more than north-south, a view traditionally held. From one end of the state to the other, the coast is liberal, solidly blue. As you go east, the politics become increasingly conservative, until you reach the eastern edge of California, which is fully red.

IN OTHER, UM, NEWS: I loved a recent comment from Redwood City police Lt. Jeff Clements on the opening of the police substation at Sequoia Station shopping center that perfectly captured the view police have toward firefighters: “Firefighters get the five-finger wave, we get the one finger wave.”