Murals Around the Flatlands

 

Have you noticed murals popping up around Oakland? We like the color, but there is an air of defeat around them.

Some neighborhood crime prevention councils and groups of residents put enormous energy into murals. The one shown above is painted; many are made of tiles – hundreds of tiles. The councils spend a good chunk of their budget on materials, and dedicated residents devote hours to breaking tiles and assembling the picture on a wall, a garbage bin, or a planter.

However, the social situation behind the murals is not good. People despair of achieving a decent level of public safety in Oakland. They see the mayor apologizing for the thug who snatched her purse last September. She reduces the number of police while protecting failed social programs. Escape to creating little patches of beauty is one response.

Unfortunately, some people seize on the mural activity to argue in favor of ignoring crime. With unreal talk about being "positive," they push neighbors to walk away from the fight for public safety. Yes, it is a challenge, and we must keep at it, because some day the official tolerance for thuggery in Oakland will take us to an outrage so great that change becomes necessary.

The mural above is on a car wash along MacArthur Blvd. It is plagued by drivers who run loud stereo while they polish their vehicles. It is not a safe place in the evening. But now it has an eye-catching mural.

 

Click for detail of trash container

Garish advertising signs cover the windows of this market on 38th Avenue. The drug dealers like them – conducting transactions in the store is hidden. However, you might notice an attractive, pathetic trash container at the corner, overwhelmed by the signage blight. A group of neighbors decorated it, salving their souls with mosaic therapy.

 

A committee of the neighborhood group tiled a mural on the trash container. It sits in the front of a market on 38th Avenue. The operator of the market showed his appreciation by defacing it with an advertising poster. That's what happens when neighbors try to avoid confronting anti-social behavior – it confronts them. What the neighborhood really needs is a petition drive demanding the market close at 10 p.m. instead of midnight.