In 2001, my husband Steve and I moved our business, Mirador Community Store, to the corner of 21st & Division at Seven Corners. This was before New Seasons was at 20th, back when the meat packing company took up the northeast corner, before Division was an “up and coming” street.
We decided to hire customer/artist Gwyllm Llwydd to paint a mural on the garage doors of our building in 2002 in the interest of creating some vibrancy on our corner. Little did we know that this simple act would lead to threatening citations from the City of Portland (Bureau of Developmental Services, BDS), interviews on TV and in newspapers and having to board up 2/3 of our new mural to make it a legal sign.
It also led to us making a host of new friends in Portland’s mural community and having hundreds of conversations about murals. We also became passionate about murals while watching the number of murals in Portland grow.
A happy ending to our story was wh
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| The mural |
en all the boards were taken down on this October 9.
Before 1998, the City of Portland exempted murals from its sign code. Then AK Media (which is now Clear Channel) sued the City of Portland on the premise that by this exemption, the city was discriminating against advertising in favor of murals. The court agreed with Clear Channel and the city saw its choice between not regulating signs at all or regulating murals as signs, and picked the latter.
When we first planned the mural in 2002, we made a couple of agency phone calls because we knew there were issues concerning murals. We were told we could have a mural under 200 square feet. The guidance we received was only partially correct.
In the eyes of the city code, our mural was a sign and we didn’t have zoning that would allow that big a sign at our location. We didn’t know this so we proceeded anyway.
Then in 2003, we were cited by BDS, given two days to cover up the “sign” or face fines of $50.00 per day. Portico at 36th & Division was also cited. An article in The Oregonian caused so many outraged people to call BDS that, by the end of the day, we were told the citation was on hold.
By the spring of the following year, everything was off hold, we were told we had to do something about our “sign” and we chose to cover up 2/3 of it, making 50 feet or so a permitted sign. It seemed to us that painting it over made no sense and that something would ultimately be worked out.
Since that time, a lot has happened in regards to the stock of murals in Portland. In 2004, the mural issue became highly visible again and the City of Portland wanted a way to overcome the inertia that reduced new mural creation to a dribble since 1998.
Work by the City and mural activists resulted in two new mural programs. One is the RACC program (Regional Arts and Culture Council) and the other is the new program we used, the Original Art Murals Project.
The RACC program grew out of meetings with former mayor Vera Katz between staff and stakeholders which resulted in a program felt to be litigation-proof. In the program, murals are considered public art.
Thanks to that program, Portland boasts 30 plus new works created. This RACC program, existing since 2005, will remain an option for artists and wall owners as will the use of sign permits for murals.
The City of Portland was back in court with Clear Channel in 2006 with a second suit over murals. This time, Judge Michael Marcus allowed muralist/activist Joe Cotter to intervene to represent the interests of the mural arts community. Clear Channel lost this go ‘round, with the court opinion that the city could regulate murals separately from signs without having to review the content of the message or image.
Since that time, the City of Portland has worked again with the mural community to fashion the permit process approved by City Council on July 1 of this year. Clear Channel and the City of Portland are still in litigation over this, but it is expected that murals are on solid ground with the new program.
This struggle has produced much that is positive. It spawned a mural advocacy group in our city (Portland Mural Defense) and strengthened the ties for these artists in our community. We have a Portland mural postcard coming out by local artist Robin Dunitz. Mural artists are helping youth plan and paint murals inside and outside their schools and on other public walls.
It’s hard to say how many murals are being planned as I write this, but with our new program, more new murals are a sure thing. The mural saga is another example of a small group of people making a difference.
We want to thank several of those people in particular, muralists/activists Joe Cotter, Joanne Oleksiak and Mark Meltzer, as well as the other muralists and supporters who slogged through meetings and hearings for years to make this all possible.
Also a hearty thank you to our customers and neighbors in SE Portland, who gave us support and always believed as we did, that a mural is not an a sign!
