Friday, December 16, 2011
Neighborhoods RIP King of Pops mural
Posted by Gwynedd Stuart @gwynnstu on Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 5:31 PM
Sad news: City code enforcement and a hateful coat of white paint have transformed the well-loved King of Pops mural near the corner of North and N. Highland avenues into another blank, white wall.
The mural's disappearance was brought to our attention by the blog Restaurants ATL (now that our office is in Atlantic Station, I don't drive by it every day). They spoke with "Nick" from King of Pops who said the city had swooped in and painted over it while they were on vacation in Mexico.
Not exactly true. The mural was covered up by Jeff Vantosh, who owns the building on which the mural was painted (the laundromat at 599 N. Highland). Vantosh explained to CL today that he didn't want to cover it up, but was forced to after he was cited by code enforcement. The violation, according to Vantosh: The mural constituted an "off-premises sign" — so, because King of Pops doesn't physically operate out of the space, it couldn't have a "sign" (or mural, presumably) on the building. Code enforcement couldn't find a citation on record for that address.
Vantosh said, "I liked it on my building. I wanted to keep it. I even asked the lady down at the city if I could get some kind of variance, but they told me if I didn't get it off, I was going to get fined. I loved the mural."
A neighborhood landmark bites the dust.
Comments (48)
Showing 1-48 of 48
And the City government wonders why the citizenry holds it in such low esteem....
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burned out houses— that's ok, because its hard work. Painting over graffiti and murals of beloved local business— lets makes some trustees from the jail slop some white paint over it. Everything looks better when its covered in white paint.
Fuck Atlanta. :-\
Meanwhile, there is a house on my street that was half-crushed by a tree about 6 months ago and still sits there in a decaying/demolished state with a big blue tarp over it.
Good job code enforcement.
hill st?
amsterdam ave?
There's a lot of blue tarp out there. ;)
Ponce is littered with gigantic illuminated billboards that no one in the neighborhood wants to see, yet this mural is, or was, a code violation? If that's the law, we need to get it changed.
Um. The building owner claims he was cited; no citation on record. Who complained about the mural, and why? There's more going on here.
King of Pops does have a second-rate competitor who's been selling similar pops from a pushcart in areas not far away. Not saying it's connected, but very odd that the building owner is "cited" for the mural after all this time ... and apparently wasn't, really. Worth looking into, when yet another rather tacky Atlanta corner is deprived of something that redeemed it somewhat.
Who is the city official we should inundate with emailed and phoned-in complaints?
This sounds like a perfect opportunity for us Atlantans to raise our voices against the normals who suppress the actual beautification of our neighborhoods in favor of esoteric rule keeping.
Can somebody tell me who we need to call and throw a fit at?
Call Kwanza Hall, District 2 Councilmember:
404 330 6038
khall@atlantaga.gov
http://citycouncil.atlantaga.gov/members/h…
1) Why make life hard on a 100% local owned & operated employer?
2) There are Coca-Cola logos painted on many buildings around town that do not house Coca-Cola offices.
2) KoP brings a certain culture and local color that our neighborhoods desperately need.
"Can somebody tell me who we need to call and throw a fit at?"
I'd hold off on that since it seems that this whole thing was half-ass investigated before it got slathered across our monitors. Maybe there will be a follow-up phone call in the coming days requesting a copy of the citation from Mr. Vantosh. Maybe we'll get some substantive info in a follow-up article after that copy (or lack thereof) leads somewhere. Maybe Thomas, the last adult left at CL, will host a seminar to teach his co-workers the basics of journalism.
If this guy sells pops or even KOP tshirts in his building, would he be allowed to have a KOP mural then? Sad all that hard work is gone.
This is a really obvious story that, if CL is overlooking it, should make us all cry. Jesus. Very bad, and disgusting.
i think the mural should be replaced with a photo of code enforcement personnel, bent over wit a POP up their a**. just sayin'
This is a serious question: why don;t we all stop bitching online and do something about it? I'm not talking about "Occupy Buddy's Neighbor" (but could be interesting) but how about at least writing a shitload of letters? Maybe I'm being too idealistic because of a steady diet of Shawshank and a recent diet of the West Memphis Three, but damn, if we don't shit, we don't really have the write to complain about change? Shee-it.
And I realize I confused write and right, because I was thinking about writing for our rights. My point stands, so don't make a big deal out of it.
I liked it too, but a neighborhood landmark? Are we all so new to the area that a mural becomes a landmark only a few years after being painted on a 50+ year old building?
Atlanta rules!! One mural down and we have the whole city to enjoy... Wtf?? I mean, their pops are awesome but come on!! We can work together, let's not bring the whole city down!! Our city is great!! Let's all enjoy it together!
This sounds fishy to me. The owner could have just painted over the name. He chose to paint over the whole mural.
If that was a mural of someone like Arthur Blank or Pete Correll the city would have hailed it as a masterpiece. Atlanta, stop punishing the people that are trying to bring this city out of the dark ages.
The story still sounds fishy. Without an official statement from the City, I'm not ready to believe it.
Well I hope the CITY will be the ones who have to constantly paint over the inevitable slew of crappy tags that are sure to follow. This is ridiculous!
There's a story here. A reporter who's doing his job questions the building owner and code enforcement further. If the building owner got cited, as he claims, why is there no record of it? Maybe he interpreted a warning ("I was going to get fined") as a citation. If so, does anyone in code enforcement recall warning him? Also: Is there any connection -- relatives, political pals -- between anyone in code enforcement (and/or Kwanza Hall) and King of Pops' would-be competitor? Between the building owner and King of Pops' would-be competitor?
Or did code enforcement, out of the blue, after all this time, decide to crack down on a harmless, beautifying mural, but not keep any record of doing so?
This is ridiculous. I love king of pops and the new life and energy that they bring to our city. Code enforcement doesnt report directly to City Council members. I consider it art but will get to the bottom of the situation during this holiday season. We will find out and report out.
Your councilman
Kwanza
Not defending the city in this case, but there is a reason for the sign ordinance. A few years back businesses were putting big ads on commercial buildings, it was getting out of hand. Not just small signs, huge billboards on top of buildings, and big ads that would actually be wrapped around buildings. The only way they could control the eyesores was to enact the new law that prohibited ads on buildings unless the business had an actual presence there. It did cut down on the ugly billboard litter.
This is stupid. How dare the city enforce code against a business I like. They should only do that to businesses I don't like.
I remember when the Zombies on Dekalb got painted over.
This is just another example of the need to make everything Generic so that no one feels like they aren't special.
Whoever is ultimately responsible for this Fail needs a swift kick in the junk with a Golf Shoe.
yet PBR and the High Museum can put up murals all over the city? atlanta continues to greywash the culture and excitment right out of town
Just one more demonstration of Atlanta City Hall's commitment to assisting small business thrive.
*hack*
Laudable that the councilman has emerged to decry this situation and vow to "get to the bottom" of it ("during this holiday season" no less!). But, reader, if you think you'll get "the bottom" of anything, except maybe the barrel, from a politician, well, god help you during this holiday season and for the rest of the year.
A persistent, skeptical outsider with her wits about her -- they used to call such people "journalists" -- could (should) expose more of what went on here.
Government at work, congrats everyone! Once again, Atlanta continues to work on misplaced priorities. As one poster said earlier, Coca-Cola has murals painted on buildings across the city and the buildings are not Coca-Cola offices, or have nearly anything to do with Coca-Cola business outside of a current or former tenant selling the product. King of Pops should show the city that he pays business license fees, taxes to and employs residents from what time it really is. Board the shop up and move it to another city that will appreciate what you have done. Of course, I beg to ask where is the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and all the other business associations that is supposed to stand with the businesses on this.
Thanks for getting down to the bottom of this Councilman Hall. Just please don't create any more committees, panel discussions or task forces on it. The city has more than enough of them and things are still not getting done. Or in the case of Fulton County, if the report is not saying what they want to hear then they trash it and all who participated in it.
its not the mural that's the point, it's this whole bullshit mentality about what is in code or what. Don't forget we were going to raze the Fox like the two train terminals before it because it "was old". This town is such a scam. They can't even set up an old woman to be killed without blowing it.
I've lived here 55 years and I don;t even recognize the place anymore, look at Buckhead or as I call it "Cranetown". We got that great Shoneys on Piedmont held together by staples and posters. Oh yeah I forgot the medical building near Sacred Heat church, that's been a decrepit mess for 20 years.
No wonder we are the Poster child for Zombie series's, RoboCop3, Deathwish 4 maybe 5. I'm waiting for the remake of Road Warrior to be done here.
I guess this is what the ghost town people felt like when the tumble weeds took over. Thank god for Kudzu.
City of Atlanta gov sucks. What a bunch of losers. This is not what the PEOPLE want.
They can't fill a fucking pothole, but they can do this? Atlanta sucks.
"They can't even set up an old woman to be killed without blowing it."
To be fair, that's not an easy thing to do.
Fair enough, even the antifreeze woman pushed her luck. Got away with it once, just couldn't stay away from the well.
Code Enforcement is part of the APD (I believe) and are officially the Bureau of Code Compliance. You call and they'll tell you that for problems like rats or a hole in your roof that it could take at least 30 days or more for an officer to come out AND that if you give them a number that it will be seen on their website. Who knows if that is true. Using their not quite decent website http://www.atlantaga.gov/government/planni… and click on the Check on the Status of your Request you can check the status of complaints (supposedly) and typing in North Highland you get some addresses but nothing near that given for the laundry spot.
Buddy's address is 1079 North Ave and when I search for that address something comes up about overgrowth with the complaint coming in on 9/23/11, assigned to Ezron Benjamin (maybe that's last name then first name?) and Corey Tate going out to inspect it on 11/9/11 at 6:13 pm at which point there was no overgrowth seen. So maybe that's the jackass who decided to tell the laundry building guy to take it down or get cited.
Usually someone from Code is assigned to a certain part of town (which is great when they're besties with so and so and you try and get someone else out there to do the inspection and the supervisor wants to know if you're questioning the integrity of their officers and you're like, yeh, but don't say that because you need someone to come out and not in the 30 day plus estimate you've been given...I'm looking at you Juan on the S side) so you could eliminate a number of people. Especially considering all the cuts that have been made to the department. Seriously- caving in ceiling is going to take 30 or more days? At least sewage overflow takes less than two weeks usually. Try to see the positive...
It's not like they actually know the law 100% of the time- I've known some people to get citations for serious bullshit. Then you talk to someone in the office (supervisor) and they're like, "A judge isn't going to rule in our favor on that so I'm not going to try it." You can go to these hearings, FYI.
Dan Woods and Centennian have a point, the government can't arbitrarily enforce codes. I mean it would be cool to get more murals, though how does one decide what is Art and what is an Ad?
True about the point of coke and other murals.
Though great arclike has a good point, paint over the words and its no longer an advertisement since it doesn't have any trademarked images such as a logo or character. Just a picture of the guy and a generic looking Popsicle - and these images aren't trademarked like colonel sanders, Ronald McDonald, the Golden Arches, the Coke Swirl or the Eat mor chixen Cows). If Mr. King of Pops' image is recognizable and thus commercial then change his face.
If the code is written to not allow that then fix it. I don't think we'll have a problem with them wrapping buildings if they can't put trademarked images or words or illuminate them. Though honestly I don't have a problem with wrapping buildings in Ads, its billboards along highways I don't like because they are lighted and they lead to cutting down trees and the shade they provide.
Doh! I looked so quickly at the picture i thought that guy was painted on the mural not standing in front of it. So painting over the words does really take care of it.
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