On Valentine’s Day of 1976, Portland, Maine woke up to find the entire city plastered madly with a non-discriminatory message from an unknown source; Love.
White pages with bold red hearts covered every window and lamp post in the Old Port and downtown areas then, and now, 34 years later, it has become a well-anticipated tradition. Many shop owners (even the Portland Museum of Art and, this year, a local pre-school!) welcome the Valentine’s Day Bandit‘s visit by creating and hanging their own red hearts.
In recent years, other cities have adopted our practice (we’re such trendsetters here in Portland 
) spreading the hearts across the States. We don’t mind. We’ll share the love!
Here are some photos I took this year of the work of the bandit and his disciples:
I love this window display! Reminds me of my budget sheets!
Flying above the fire station tonight! (Taken with zoom on my phone -- sorry!)
Are you the bandit, Hugo?
I love my city and (clearly) my city loves me. For more photos of the phenomenon check out this set on Flickr. See you tomorrow for a heart-garland how-to!
