Purple

As I was driving to Costco on the evening of December 3rd, I happened to take a left onto Grove instead of Fell where I usually turn. And I saw this.

Now I know that City Hall is lit up to commemorate various events. Orange usually means the Giants had won, and Red and Gold I assume has something to do with the 49ers. A few years ago, the City replaced the old incandescent bulbs that previously lit up the exterior (requiring staff to crawl out of various office windows to install colored gels whenever the decision was made light the building a different color) with easily adjustable LEDs. Given how convenient it has now become to change colors, it seems to me that we commemorate a lot more. Besides the classics, here is a brief sampling of other commemorations from last year:

• Blue/Red - Korean visit

• Blue/White - Zeta Phi Beta 100th Anniversary

• Green - Cholangiocarcinoma Awareness Month

• Orange - World Kidney Day (this time it wasn’t the Giants)

• Red/White - National Day of Canada

• Red/White - National Day of Switzerland

• Red/White - Lowell High Girl's Volleyball Championship (you can see how this might get confusing)

Okay, but why purple today? It hit me. I fumbled around for my phone to quickly snap this photo before the traffic light turned, convinced that I had figured it out. After all, there was only one reason purple could have been top of mind that week.

In some twisted yet brilliant thinking, I was sure that someone had decided to light City Hall with the color corresponding to San Francisco’s COVID-19 tier rating. In a Gotham City-esque manner I imagined City Hall slowly fading from already-bad red to much-worse purple as the latest test positivity and adjusted case rates were released. City leaders had been relentless in beseeching people to stay home and follow guidelines - this seemed like a perfectly logical, although admittedly ominous next step.

Well, turns out I was wrong. December 3 is actually International Day of People with Disabilities. And that’s why purple.