Zoning Administrator meets with Help Group to sentence John Weber mural
Thursday, 12 February 2009 11:23 |
Monday, February 9 – Zoning Administrator R. Nicholas Brown met with the Help Group to discuss plans for their future school. The Help Group will be opening a new school for children with spectrum disorders in the buildings that used to house the Valley Cities Jewish Community Center. The Help Group is planning to remove a city-funded mural, painted for the JCC and surrounding community by John Pitman Weber in 1992. The mural is one of the only in the city that remains well maintained and free of graffiti. Brown opened the hearing with issues of the mural stating that, though he sympathized with the cause, he had no legal grounds on which to require its maintenance. More or less ending the discussion before it began, Brown “suggested” that if supporters wished to discuss the mural with Help Group representatives, they could remain after hours. Brown moved on to zoning issues at which point Help Group President Dr. Barbara Firestone waxed poetic about the “greater good of all children living in Los Angeles.” She explained their intention to build a fence that would enable the school to be visible from the street and vice versa, expressing “we don’t want [the school] to look institutionalized, we don’t want it to look like a prison.”
Present at the meeting were President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Barbara Firestone and Senior Vice President Tom Comp, along with the architect and two lawyers. In support of the mural were Ava Porter from SPARC and Les Paley, a board member of the Valley Cities JCC and early advocate for the mural. When, after the meeting, taking R. Brown’s suggestion, Ava Porter asked for a final comment on the Help Group’s justification for removal of the mural, and how exactly it is not consistent with their mission, Tom Comp responded that he would not give a comment because he didn’t “have to.”
The Help Group will eliminate the mural. Our final recourse is to ask them to coat the mural with a protective layer before whitewashing over it, instead of sandblasting the mural off the wall. It is a simple step to take and this way, even if the mural is hidden from view, it will be preserved, allowing future generations to bring it back, if they so decide. You can make a quick phone call to the Help Group's VP/Public Affairs, John Farrimond, at (818) 779-5212.
Present at the meeting were President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Barbara Firestone and Senior Vice President Tom Comp, along with the architect and two lawyers. In support of the mural were Ava Porter from SPARC and Les Paley, a board member of the Valley Cities JCC and early advocate for the mural. When, after the meeting, taking R. Brown’s suggestion, Ava Porter asked for a final comment on the Help Group’s justification for removal of the mural, and how exactly it is not consistent with their mission, Tom Comp responded that he would not give a comment because he didn’t “have to.”
The Help Group will eliminate the mural. Our final recourse is to ask them to coat the mural with a protective layer before whitewashing over it, instead of sandblasting the mural off the wall. It is a simple step to take and this way, even if the mural is hidden from view, it will be preserved, allowing future generations to bring it back, if they so decide. You can make a quick phone call to the Help Group's VP/Public Affairs, John Farrimond, at (818) 779-5212.
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