L.A., under the behest of the new mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, is ordering businesses that have commissioned murals on their own property to paint them over or have them redone with city-approved art because they might look like grafitti.
Who determines what is art and what is grafitti (and so what if it resembles grafitti?), and why is that the business of the city? I see lots of murals in L.A. on private property, most of them quite good, yet our pretend liberal mayor wants to eliminate them?
A small but instructive example of how Villaraigosa, who used to be a genuine progressive, has become a mouthpiece for corporate interests. They don’t want vibrant, home-grown art when, y’know, it could be bland art that promotes real estate values instead. Watch what Villaraigosa does, not what he says.