On second try, committee OKs registry to protect murals from city graffiti crews

The second time was the charm on Monday for a local alderman’s plan to create a citywide mural registry that graffiti removal crews would have to check before they paint over it or blast it away.

Two months ago, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) was stymied in his plan to create a mural registry after Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) raised concerns about taxpayer liability and making certain graffiti removal remains a higher priority than preserving public art.

On Monday, the City Council’s Zoning Committee approved a revised mural registry after Hopkins modified the ordinance to alleviate both concerns.

“The language now reflects with absolute clarity that the city has no additional exposure to any kind of litigation if we accidentally remove a mural that some artist believes was their property and they decide they want to sue us,” Hopkins said.

“We [also] mandated that the insignia for the registered artwork be a three-dimensional placard of some type that’s hard to counterfeit. Something the city is going to produce. And when you register it, you affix it to a wall in such a way that it’s hard for the Streets and San crew to not notice it.”

With those changes, Lopez went along with the ordinance and even spoke out in favor of it.

Gone were the fears he expressed in August about a bureaucratic requirement that could slow down removal of graffiti that destroys public property and creates a breeding ground for other crimes.

“I’m fairly confident that, based on the language that we introduced today, that crews will be able to continue to do their work and not be hampered by trying to figure out if something is or isn’t on the registry,” Lopez said Monday.

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events “will be required to keep a list up to date monthly,” the alderman said.

“If it’s not on the list or the medallion’s missing, they can proceed without having to go through seven hoops to get the building cleaned,” Lopez said.

Four times in recent months, over-zealous city crews have used paint or graffiti blasters to remove murals that turned out to be public works of art.

The latest mural mistakenly removed was the work of artist JC Rivera. It was painted over soon after it was completed near the Paulina station on the CTA’s Brown Line.

Similar mistakes inadvertently removed murals in Hermosa, Wicker Park and at the North Side headquarters of Cards Against Humanity.

Once the mural registry has been created, Hopkins believes those mistakes will be all but eliminated.

“It’ll relieve Streets and San graffiti crews of the burden of having to decide whether they should remove something when they’re standing on the sidewalk looking at it,” Hopkins said.

“Instead of thinking, ‘Is this art or is this not art,’ they’re gonna say, ‘Do I see the placard or not.’ If they don’t see the placard, they’re free to blast away and they will not be held responsible later.”

Art activists issued an emailed statement applauding the decision to create a registry to protect street murals that are a classic form of street art.

“Cards Against Humanity and the surrounding neighborhood were both disappointed when the city … destroyed a priceless mural by Blek le Rat on our building earlier this year. But that disappointment has also given us an opportunity to observe true leadership … I hope that ordinance can become a national model for preserving murals and celebrating street art,” said Max Temkin of Cards Against Humanity.

“Before we met with Ald. Hopkins, I tried to temper expectations. … I told them, ‘We don’t give to the Alderman. We’re not powerful people in this city. And we don’t have a life or death issue.’ … Brian Hopkins didn’t have to help us, but he did, and he got results that will have an incredibly positive impact for the art community in this city for generations to come.”

Tanner Woodford from Design Museum of Chicago said that for too long, artwork that has “benefited the public in implicit and explicit ways has been destroyed and removed” by City Hall.

“Alderman Brian Hopkins … understood the damage that had been done, then stepped up to provide leadership in correcting the issue,” Woodford said.

“His action has not only provided cover and support for us when trying to bring public art back to life with 10 new murals on the exterior of the Cards Against Humanity office. It has also provided a system for documenting and protecting public art across the city. The fruits of his actions will impact generations to come.”

The mural registry still must be approved by the full City Council.