By Saul Cohen Santa Monica
I found the letter (“Ditch creepy mural,” March 26) complaining about the mural on the city’s new affordable housing project at 26th (Street) and Santa Monica (Boulevard) interesting.
I too feel compelled to complain about the “art” at a new, city-funded affordable housing project, this one located at 15th Street and Broadway.
I’m not sure what the city and its boards and commissions were thinking when they approved this project, but the scrap metal “sculpture” protruding out from the front of the building is just plain ugly.
But forgetting for the moment that one component of the “art” for this public housing project, what on earth was the city thinking when it approved another component of the project’s public “art” — the walls made out of beer cans on the lower floor of the building.
Walls made out of beer cans? Forgetting that it looks hideous, because this building is intended to be affordable to low-and moderate-income families, what kind of message does this send to the families and their children that will live there? To me, the message is that it’s all right to consume alcohol and possibly develop alcohol dependency.
For goodness sakes, the city could have used soda pop cans instead of beer cans.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.