Decatur Interested In Painting Community Mural on Trinity’s MARTA Overpass
Decatur Metro | July 21, 2015 | 11:18 am
At last night’s Decatur City Commission meeting, the commission gave their support to a grant application to the Atlanta Regional Commission Public Art Program to paint to a “community mural” on the MARTA overpass on West Trinity Place (Streetview).
According to the note from Asst. City Manager Linda Harris, the City of Decatur, the Decatur Housing Authority and the Decatur Arts Alliance are planning a collaboration with MARTA and the diverse communities in the area to create the mural.
The ARC grant is new in 2015 and is a competitive, matching grant program designed “to assist local communities in developing and installing public art in their communities across the region and was inspired by the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, the nation’s largest mural program.”, according to Ms. Harris’ note.
The Atlanta program has selected the following “shared value” to promote in 2015 – “Atlantans share the belief that there is ample opportunity to participate in making history in our region.”
The Decatur project would bring the area’s community together with the selected artist, and the artist would develop a mural “reflecting the community response to that statement in some way”.
Great idea. That overpass is a bit stark right there. How is the Gateway renovation going? I would think that it would be perfect for Gateway kids to be involved in the mural. But we’d have to wait until they all get back home after the renovation.
Great stuff. Seems that young girl who initiated the painting of the underpass on the corner of Commerce and E College Ave has inspired people. Well done!
This would be great. Walking under there as it is now isn’t the most pleasant experience. I wonder if the image will reflect the community that was once there.
I hope it will be art not graffit,i like the one on N. Candler and E Trinity
There is no mural or graffiti at N Candler & E Trinity, there is just a tree in the island. Do you mean N Candler & E Howard instead? There is a nice Living Walls mural there, I think it’s called “Unity”. It may not be to your “taste” but it’s art not graffiti.
Oh, and if you hate that one, be sure and check out the one on the opposite side of the building.. it’s sure to make your head explode 🙂
I’d love to see an Olive47 mural there.
I agree. She is currently working on a mural right on the Beltline on the side of the Icebox building.
We would have to move quickly. She’s leaving Atlanta soon.
Great idea and a pretty good picture. This is an area I am familiar with and recently walked around trying to remember the old days. Prior to MARTA and intergration, this area had numerous homes, several stores, a theater, “Tyler’s Funeral Home”, a church called Thankful Baptist and of course a school complex. The Grayhound bus station was also nearby, where the Mary Gay house is today. Several months ago, when people were still living in Gateway, I strolled through the area and took some pics of the art that the locals left on the underpass support. I sent DM one of the photos. Maybe the future artist could use these images as part of the underpass art project.
I have often wondered what happens to this community. Something destroyed it. As we move forward in the Better Together/Leadership Circle process, it might be good to remember that government programs can have good and bad consequences. This community was wiped out. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen to the rest of us.
DM: Did not clearly indicate, but link I tried to post earlier today (in response to Mr. B) was to an article about Beacon Hill community with comments from former Mayor Elizabeth Wilson. Some issue with the article I’m not aware of that caused deletion?
Read further down; DM admits to more moderation for comments against folks that use their real names.
Ah, my old moderation buddy. How long have we been doing this beautiful dance?
, sorry, it’s difficult to take this seriously. Maybe I’ll start posting under my real name…
Apologies. Didn’t realize you were being serious.
Yep. Email me and I can explain.
Heh. When ideologies and logic conflict, the result is sometimes hilarious. Rus, I have no doubt that you and Mr. B are 180 degrees apart on the political spectrum, but this is probably one of the rare instances where you’d agree with his thoughts if you understood them. The community that he lamented being wiped out was the historically black Beacon Community. It’s easy to see hatred and racism in anything if that’s what you’re looking for but I think you swung and missed big time here.
Oh great. Now it looks like I’m talking to myself again. Thanks a lot DM!
no, i saw Rus’ comment, and completely agree he took Chris’ post way out of context.
DM, understand how it could be perceived as inflammatory and why you removed it, but sometimes, letting the community hash out these kinds of things empowers its ability to self-monitor, and reinforces a shared standard of conduct. HONY comments are a good example of community self-monitoring: anyone getting too critical of a person featured in a post is descended upon by the community’s white cells.
on the other hand, leaving Rus’ comment in could have also turned into a long hot mess . . .
Yes, I completely agree. I think we’ve demonstrated that many times over the years. But often times that’s done at the expense of being consistent.
And there are varying degrees. Like it or not, those who freely choose to use their real names here inadvertently require they receive higher levels of moderation in replies made toward them. It’s much easier to be personally attacked when your ID is out there. I have the emails to prove it. I’ve recently considered banning use of full, real names for that very reason.
focus group of one here, but i’m (clearly) a fan of full name transparency—it introduces a level of personal accountability to the equation that feels clean to me. while i respect others’ reasons for using pseudonyms, i think the overall tone of discourse here, and across the web, would be more civil if everyone used their real names, requiring them to stand by their own words.
Yep, I’m well aware of this argument – having heard it regularly from a variety of people over the years. But I question the assumption that full name transparency is the only and best way to have a conversation. Yes, you technically need to be more personally accountable for your comments, but in return there is also the potential for more posturing and personal animus that can distract from the topic at hand.
Facebook is now the perfect example of this and shows that full name transparency isn’t a catch-all solution. Conversations there can often times be less constructive and uglier than here. Of course, it’s the world’s salvation in many other ways, but we are one small alternative looking to offer a different setting.
viva la difference, Decatur Metro (if that’s your real name).
Ha, give my wife and call and ask her! Phone # is in the right sidebar!
Forget your wife, what your kid calls you is much more entertaining.
I think it would be interesting to remove identifiers altogether. In any given thread, commentators would be identified by numbers assigned in order of appearance. So within a thread, all comments by the 5th person to weigh in would be identified as coming from #5. But on a different thread, that person might be the 1st to post a remark and so be #1, or the 10th or the 37th. Obviously, many individuals would be recognizable from thread to thread based on their style and tone. But might this approach disengage at least a measure of personal animus/affinity that undoubtedly factors into these conversations sometimes? I don’t know, but I wonder. How many times do we see a comment that is less about the topic at hand and more an expression of overall disagreement or dislike of someone else’s outlook (or even dislike of the person)? IMO one of the most worthwhile aspects of this forum is the opportunity to discover common ground in unexpected places and I think it is more likely to happen we each listen to WHAT is being said and ignore WHO is saying it.
oh, i dunno, i like to keep things simple:
here’s what i think—here’s my name.
in my world, the upside of anonymity doesn’t outweigh the downside.
I use an alias. But I’m probably still less anonymous than half the people who use their real names. Or something like that.
Ah, but there’s nothing like moderation.
I’ve been outed numerous times. I’ve been using the screen name for almost 25 years, and I’ve grown attached to it.