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Bubblegum aley in downtown San Luis Obispo, California. |
Bubblegum Alley is a local tourist landmark in downtown
San Luis Obispo, California, known for its accumulation
of used bubble gum on the walls of an alley. It
is a 15-foot (4.6 m) high and 70-foot (21 m) long
alley lined with chewed gum left by passers-by.
The locally created, "most-talked-about landmark"
covers a stretch of 20 meters between 733 and 734
Higuera Street in downtown San Luis Obispo.
According to the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce
and Downtown Business Improvement Association, the
history of who actually started this gum fiesta
is "a little sketchy". Some historians
believe that the tradition of the Alley started
after WWII as a San Luis Obispo High School graduating
class event. Others believe it to have started in
the late 1950s as rivalry between San Luis Obispo
High School and Cal Poly students. As soon as the
Poly students suspected that the high school was
trying to out-do them on the gum walls, the college
students stepped up their game and immediately became
more creative, thus launching Bubblegum Alley. In
any case, by the 1970s Bubblegum Alley was well
under way. When shop owners complained that it was
"unsanitary and disgusting", the alley
underwent a full cleaning. The gum graffiti survived
two full cleanings in the '70s, but when, in 1996,
the BIA attempted to have another full cleaning,
it was not passed... |
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