Post by dj on Jun 8, 2008 21:00:54 GMT -5
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Jun 6, 10:27 PM EDT
Not graffiti: neighborhood murals lost to cleanup
SEATTLE (AP) -- Greg Zuhl wanted to do something about the graffiti sprayed on beloved public art murals decorating an underpass in his neighborhood.
So last March, Zuhl called Seattle's Graffiti Report Line, but his calls led the city to paint over the entire artwork he was trying to save - leaving drab gray walls.
"I've played it over in my mind a million times," Zuhl said. "Why am I so d**n civic-minded? If I hadn't pressed the issue to get this cleaned up, the murals would still be there."
The murals stretched along each side of the underpass near the Woodland Park Zoo and were filled with paintings of elephants, a frog, a monkey and other animals to go along with a zoo-inspired theme.
By Zuhl's estimate, the graffiti tags covered only about 1 percent of the murals, which were painted by a group of neighborhood residents in 1994 with the help of a $2,000 city grant. Designer Josh Howard, a New York City-based artist, projected 10 drawings onto the underpass walls. "It was kind of like paint-by-the-numbers," he recalled.
It was not the first time the murals had been sprayed with graffiti. But in the past, zoo staff painted over the graffiti tags to match the art, even though the underpass is maintained by the city. On other occasions, residents of the Phinney Ridge neighborhood had gotten together to clean things up.
But along with Zuhl's calls, a breakdown in communications led to the murals' demise.
In March, Zuhl noticed nothing was being done about the spraying, so he called the graffiti hotline three times. He also called the zoo, which then called the hotline twice.
All those calls made it seem to the city as if many neighbors were complaining.
In came the city's Graffiti Rangers, a six-person crew that has removed 103,713 graffiti tags, and removed or painted out more than 337,000 square feet of graffiti on city-owned walls, bridges and stairwells in the last year, according to the city.
"We gave the Graffiti Rangers the OK to remove the graffiti. Unfortunately, the whole mural was painted out," said Marybeth Turner, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Transportation.
She added that the city called the zoo to ask who is responsible for maintaining the murals. The zoo said the city spoke to someone who couldn't immediately find any helpful information.
"They didn't tell her, 'We're considering painting over the whole thing,' " said Jim Bennett, the zoo's communications and marketing director. "She's resourceful. At that point, I'm sure she would have told them, 'Wait a minute, someone needs to be informed.' "
Whatever the reason, some neighbors are miffed.
"My goodness, my name shows up on every list of citizens that the Department of Neighborhoods has. And somehow they couldn't contact the community and tell them, 'We're going to paint this thing out'?" said Irene Wall, president of the Phinney Ridge Community Council.
The city will work with neighbors to find a replacement for the murals, said Stella Chao, director of the city's Department of Neighborhoods.
But for Zuhl, the art he liked so much is gone forever.
"This was not only a neighborhood mural," he said. "It looked like it could have gone in a museum, a piece of modern art. That's what drives me crazy."
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Jun 6, 10:27 PM EDT
Not graffiti: neighborhood murals lost to cleanup
SEATTLE (AP) -- Greg Zuhl wanted to do something about the graffiti sprayed on beloved public art murals decorating an underpass in his neighborhood.
So last March, Zuhl called Seattle's Graffiti Report Line, but his calls led the city to paint over the entire artwork he was trying to save - leaving drab gray walls.
"I've played it over in my mind a million times," Zuhl said. "Why am I so d**n civic-minded? If I hadn't pressed the issue to get this cleaned up, the murals would still be there."
The murals stretched along each side of the underpass near the Woodland Park Zoo and were filled with paintings of elephants, a frog, a monkey and other animals to go along with a zoo-inspired theme.
By Zuhl's estimate, the graffiti tags covered only about 1 percent of the murals, which were painted by a group of neighborhood residents in 1994 with the help of a $2,000 city grant. Designer Josh Howard, a New York City-based artist, projected 10 drawings onto the underpass walls. "It was kind of like paint-by-the-numbers," he recalled.
It was not the first time the murals had been sprayed with graffiti. But in the past, zoo staff painted over the graffiti tags to match the art, even though the underpass is maintained by the city. On other occasions, residents of the Phinney Ridge neighborhood had gotten together to clean things up.
But along with Zuhl's calls, a breakdown in communications led to the murals' demise.
In March, Zuhl noticed nothing was being done about the spraying, so he called the graffiti hotline three times. He also called the zoo, which then called the hotline twice.
All those calls made it seem to the city as if many neighbors were complaining.
In came the city's Graffiti Rangers, a six-person crew that has removed 103,713 graffiti tags, and removed or painted out more than 337,000 square feet of graffiti on city-owned walls, bridges and stairwells in the last year, according to the city.
"We gave the Graffiti Rangers the OK to remove the graffiti. Unfortunately, the whole mural was painted out," said Marybeth Turner, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Transportation.
She added that the city called the zoo to ask who is responsible for maintaining the murals. The zoo said the city spoke to someone who couldn't immediately find any helpful information.
"They didn't tell her, 'We're considering painting over the whole thing,' " said Jim Bennett, the zoo's communications and marketing director. "She's resourceful. At that point, I'm sure she would have told them, 'Wait a minute, someone needs to be informed.' "
Whatever the reason, some neighbors are miffed.
"My goodness, my name shows up on every list of citizens that the Department of Neighborhoods has. And somehow they couldn't contact the community and tell them, 'We're going to paint this thing out'?" said Irene Wall, president of the Phinney Ridge Community Council.
The city will work with neighbors to find a replacement for the murals, said Stella Chao, director of the city's Department of Neighborhoods.
But for Zuhl, the art he liked so much is gone forever.
"This was not only a neighborhood mural," he said. "It looked like it could have gone in a museum, a piece of modern art. That's what drives me crazy."
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