Downtown Street Sign Altered To Honor David Bowie

DOWNTOWN AUSTIN-UT, TX -- The passing of rock icon David Bowie this week prompted ch-ch-ch-changes to a downtown street sign in honoring him, albeit without official city sanction.

Overnight, someone altered the Bowie Street sign at Fifth Street to read “David Bowie St.”

The sign on the 300 block of Bowie Street looks official enough, but the modified signage wasn’t installed by city crews. The street is actually named in honor of Alamo defender James Bowie.

The revamped sign is near the offices of South By Southwest, organizers of the annual SXSW arts and music festival that draws international crowds to the city for ten days in March. Motorists and downtown pedestrians first spotted the sign Wednesday morning.

The rebel, rebel move by the unidentified sign changer has drawn wide praise from Bowie fans on social media.

Bowie fans started to descend to the spot as word of the bandit sign spread.

Gina Ryan was among those snapping pictures of the makeshift sign. She said she began listening to Bowie in earnest ten years ago while in college, and was particularly fond of the singer’s music during his Ziggy Stardust persona phase.

“It’s just a testament to how many people in Austin will always be fans,” she said.

Israel Freeland also stopped by to take some photographs. He caught Bowie in concert during the U.S. leg of his “Outside” tour in 1995, he said.

“I think it’s cool,” Freeland said. “It’s neat that somebody was able to pull it off without being spotted. But then again, it’s even cooler that the city is allowing it to stay up.”

A staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, Freelander added he wasn’t offended at the temporary re-naming of a section of street intended to honor an Alamo defender. After all, this is Austin--widely known as the live music capital of the world, he suggested.

“It’s all in good fun, and the city is looking at it as that by letting it stand so people can grab their pictures,” he said. ”It’ll go back, but it’s something unique for us.”

However, law enforcement has taken a decidedly different view.

A police department representative tells the Austin American Statesman whoever is responsible for the alteration could face theft and criminal mischief charges. The degree of each misdemeanor depends on the manpower and time it takes to switch the sign back, police said.

But for Bowie fans still mourning his unexpected death, the person responsible has emerged as something of a folk hero, if just for one day.

Bowie succumbed to cancer on Jan. 10.

>> Photos by Tony Cantu