Los Angeles thwarts family in fight over graffiti
Highland Park owners had a mural painted to deter taggers. But the city painted it over and the taggers are back.
In today's installment of Read It and Weep: Your Tax Dollars at Work, we visit a besieged Highland Park mom-and-pop grocery store owned by the Antonio family.
The Antonios can only guess at the number of times they've begun their day with a can of paint brushing over fresh graffiti left on the side of their store by taggers.
"Maybe 70 times," said Jacob Antonio Jr., 27.
His father, Jacob, begged to differ.
"More than 100 times," he said with exasperation.
Early this year, the Antonios began to notice that some stores and commercial buildings in the neighborhood weren't being tagged, and they tended to be the ones with murals. After some investigating, they learned that if you hired the right muralist, the taggers would respect the work and not mess with the mural.
So they shelled out $3,000 to hire a team that included a guy known as Playboy Eddie and Israel "Ezra" Cervantes, who had previously done a mural on a little grocery store on York Boulevard. In no time at all, Los Paisanos market had a praying Virgin Mother on a front corner along with "Jesus Saves."
On the side of the bright yellow building was a colorful but edgier painting that looked like a two-headed serpent slithering through a junk yard. Just above that was a more traditional rural scene, with a couple of paisanos in sombreros.
All in all, it wasn't quite the mural the Antonios had in mind, and they weren't sure what the snakes represented. But after years of torment, they were in a compromising mood.
"My father was like, 'You know what, just let them do what they want, if that's gonna get the kids to stop tagging. I'd rather look at that than look at graffiti.' "
Father knew best.
To the relief of the entire Antonio family, the taggers didn't come near the mural. But three months into the respite, an even more menacing monster reared its ugly head.
City Hall bureaucracy.
"ORDER TO COMPLY," said the letter from the Building and Safety Department, which required the Antonios to remove "excessive signage" under threat of a $1,000 fine "and/or six (6) months imprisonment" for each of four alleged violations.
The Antonios called the office of Councilman Ed Reyes for help, but to little avail. One day the city sent out a work crew and just like that, the Antonios' $3,000 investment was gone, covered over with dull beige paint.
