I would assume that someone walking down the river path in downtown Grand Rapids would come up to this piece of sculpture and ask that question.
The answer, it turns out, is a tribute to fluoridation. No, really. It's called "Steel Water," and was unveiled in 2007.
Grand Rapids was the first city in the world to add fluoride to its drinking water, thus cutting dentists' bills for its residents considerably. (No word on what the dentists thought about this.) As the plaque nearby says, people used to lose many of their teeth at a young age before this step was taken. Many couldn't serve in the military in World War II for that reason.
Cavities in Grand Rapids went down 65 percent after this step was taken. The sculpture celebrating all this might be a little, um, abstract for some tastes, but it's one way to celebrate a wise civic move.
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