Los Angeles River blog Nature Trumps updates readers with more info on the murals test of taste and power down by the river. If you haven't been following, County Supervisor Gloria Molina despises the content of murals created specifically for the river bank walls, commissioned by the upstanding Friends of the L.A. River. She wants the paintings gone fast. Molina's own website shows her with some children in front of a nice mural of fauna and numbers.

So, what is it with murals and the public trust these days? The city has decided to green-wash the mural on Academy near Morton, with creeping ficus. A "beautification team" was sent out to accomplish that planting. And the mural disappeared from Lemoyne and Sunset (along the side of the wonderful Masa restaurant) -- that one has been yellow-washed I believe. Another yellow-wash: the mural on Duane at Echo Park Avenue was painted over about three years ago. And now, "emergency measures" to whitewash the images from the river channel. Some say it's a safety issue, as taggers tag murals. But it looks to me like an issue of taste.

Posted on Nature Trumps:

LA Weekly reports that last Tuesday, Molina introduced an emergency measure to the County Board of Supervisors requiring FOLAR to whitewash the rest of the mural at their cost. The article says "the motion was quickly seconded by Supervisor Don Knabe, who called the mural 'outrageous,' and was then carried without further discussion or public debate.’”

“The motion requires the murals be removed in 90 days, or FoLAR [Friends of the L.A. River] will be billed by the Department of Public Works if/when they proceed to take down the mural themselves.