Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Mural in Wonderland

Englewood should find way to let oversized 'sign' stay

Published May 23, 2007 at midnight

Text size  

More Editorials

More stories »

If the vigilant burghers of Englewood succeed in their quest to have a mural on the side of a local head shop painted over, what will they do next?

Why, their only option is to march on the nearby Sinclair Middle School and confiscate copies of Alice in Wonderland from the library.

The large mural on the north wall of Headed West, 4811 S. Broadway, has been ticketed by the city - ostensibly because of its size but probably more because of its content, which some claim might promote drug use.

Proprietor Michael Mahaney had the mural painted to discourage graffiti artists from constantly targeting the large brick wall. It features various characters from Alice in Wonderland such as the Caterpillar, Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat and a somewhat bedraggled Alice.

The Caterpillar is portrayed smoking a hookah - just as Sir John Tenniel portrayed him in one of his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's classic. And yes, there are red-capped mushrooms.

The proprietor of a nearby store who didn't like the mural was quoted by a local TV station as saying "I don't think I recall from Alice in Wonderland that kind of . . . I don't know. I haven't read it in a long time, but I don't remember it being that way."

Oh, but it was that way. And you don't even have to buy the book or trudge to the library to discover that. All you need to do is Google Tenniel Caterpillar Hookah, and there it is.

On the south wall are the painted portraits of various rock legends, but nobody has complained about them yet.

City leaders are carefully trying to avoid First Amendment issues - the American Civil Liberties Union is looking into the case - by stressing that their only problem with the mural is that it exceeds municipal limits on the size of signs.

The city's "creative sign" ordinance limits the square footage of promotional signs, based on the property's street frontage. When we were gazing at the mural Monday, an Englewood police officer showed up and paced off the length of the mural, as if to make sure the citation issued two weeks ago is well grounded.

Mahaney is caught in a ridiculous bind. If he leaves a blank wall, the taggers will keep hitting it. They're never caught or punished, of course, but Mahaney can't hide. And he must pay to have any graffiti removed within three days - or be punished himself.

The mural solves his problem, since there's some sort of code that discourages taggers from despoiling murals.

Headed West is bounded by an auto body shop to the north, a trailer shop east across the street and a tire store to the south. In other words, this is not Rodeo Drive. Almost any kind of art improves the surroundings.

The city should leave Headed West alone, even if it requires modifying the "creative sign" ordinance. South Broadway could use more creative signs.