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Murals

Pat Gomez, a public art manager for the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, said the goal is not to censor artists but to give the community a greater voice in determining what kind of art is displayed on city streets. "It really was a community concern that has been voiced very strongly about these murals not going through the process," she said, adding that the city government is "responding to a community." The genre of mural art, because of its public nature, has never been far from controversy. Los Angeles is no exception. More than 70 years after it was painted, "America Tropical," a 1932 mural at Olvera Street by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros — one of few the artist painted in the U.S. — is not visible to the public. Whitewashed soon after its unveiling because of its political content, it's now hidden behind a wooden structure, undergoing a conservation effort that has dragged on for nearly two decades. Murals began popping up across Los Angeles in large numbers in the early 1960s and soon became a worldwide symbol of the city's emerging multicultural population. Many of the most famous in L.A. celebrate Mexican American culture, including the multi-paneled "Chicano Time Trip" in Lincoln Heights and "Bridges of East L.A." in Boyle Heights. But city officials acknowledge that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of murals lack approval from the Cultural Affairs Commission — a permit required for all murals facing public streets, sidewalks and alleys. Authorities estimate there are more than 2,500 murals in the city but the actual number may be much higher if unregistered works on the sides of small businesses are included. Graffiti-inspired murals began emerging in the early 1990s, as taggers who for years defaced public and private property began seeking legitimacy. Some merchants favor these types of murals because they discourage gangs from hitting their buildings with unwanted tagging. The growing popularity of the murals has met with concern from some residents and city officials. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, at an event last Tuesday touting the success of an anti-graffiti video surveillance campaign near downtown, made his feeling about tagging clear: "This is not art. It's desecration," Bratton said. Boyle Heights resident Armando Herman said he drives around his neighborhood and is upset by what he sees. He views the graffiti-style murals as a blight. "The whole idea is to get these taggers to understand that there's nothing wrong with the way they want to tag their art," said Herman, 38, a special education teacher's aide. "But it has to be done in the most appropriate way so that it doesn't interfere with other people." David Keim, chief of the city's Building and Safety Code Enforcement Bureau, said that according to city rules, no property owner can have any kind of graffiti on walls visible to the public. Keim said some property owners allow graffiti to remain on their walls out of fear of retribution from taggers if they paint it over. City ordinances do not differentiate between gang tagging and graffiti murals. "What is a graffiti mural? I've never heard of that," Keim said. Jesse Hernandez, 60, sees a very definite difference. Hernandez owns property in Boyle Heights and has commissioned graffiti-style murals on his walls. The blank walls of the converted clothing factory where he and his wife live had attracted gang graffiti for years. Then, a local graffiti muralist crew approached him and offered to paint a mural on his wall for no cost. The muralists have updated the wall periodically, never without first requesting permission, Hernandez said. The gang graffiti dropped off considerably. But under the pilot program, the city is telling him the mural must be changed. City officials gave him three options: Whitewash the walls, modify the mural as approved by the Cultural Affairs Commission, or allow a nonprofit group, the Center for the Arts, to create a new mural. Hernandez said he opted for a modified mural, but did so grudgingly. He's still not sure what city inspectors object to or how they plan to fix it. "They say it's graffiti; that's not graffiti," Hernandez said. He held up an old photograph showing the blank mural wall scrawled with gang tags. "I told them," he said, " 'You'd prefer this?' 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