It's called Canopy of Sky, and it's exactly the kind of art installation that makes you stop, look up, and briefly forget you're standing on a man-made island with a complicated history of toxic cleanup and delayed housing projects.

The piece is striking, we'll give it that. Suspended in the park, it catches light and wind in a way that actually works — part sculpture, part installation, part reason to finally visit Treasure Island for something other than a flea market or a wrong turn off the Bay Bridge.

But here's where our fiscal-responsibility alarm bells start ringing, even softly: Treasure Island has been "in development" for what feels like a geological epoch. The Treasure Island Development Authority has overseen a project that was supposed to deliver thousands of housing units, parks, retail, and a thriving community. Progress has been made, sure, but at a pace that would make a DMV clerk look like Usain Bolt.

So when public art shows up before, say, fully completed infrastructure or the thousands of promised affordable housing units, you have to ask the question: are we decorating the house before we've finished building it?

To be fair, public art and development aren't always an either/or proposition. Canopy of Sky brings people to the island, generates buzz, and gives the neighborhood something resembling cultural identity. That has real value. Art doesn't have to wait for perfection.

But let's not let a pretty installation distract from the bigger picture. Treasure Island residents — the ones actually living there through construction dust and ferry schedule headaches — deserve completed commitments before completed art pieces.

Go see it, though. It's genuinely cool. Just keep your eyes open on the drive over.