Board says mural doesn't comply

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Mark Abrishami could paint over the brightly colored mural on the front of his Chili Town restaurant on Milpas Street for ten bucks, he says. But that wouldn’t solve the relentless graffiti that pops up on the walls of businesses throughout town, nor would it show those who pass by the east side establishment what graffiti style art, when channeled in the right direction, can look like.

For Abrishami, who was told by the City of Santa Barbara’s Sign Committee yesterday that the mural does not comply with city ordinances, the fight to keep the loud sign up isn’t about Chili Town as much as it is about helping to provide an outlet for local youths to express themselves.
“We can take this really negative point [graffiti] and turn it around and make it positive,” Abrishami said. “We can do the whole wall with $10, [But it’s] not going to solve the problem of graffiti and the gang-related issue.”
Not that Abrishami’s mural is the cure-all for graffiti related social issues, but so far it has saved him some headaches.
He said his building hasn’t been vandalized with graffiti since the mural was painted a month ago and insists that most of his neighbors like it.
But beyond his own situation, Abrishami hopes the controversy surrounding the mural will prompt the city to start thinking of ways to provide outlets for local artists who prefer a bottle of spray paint over a paint brush.
“They have to show their creativity and when we limit them they’re going to do it in the dark, they’re going to do it on a sign on the highway,” Abrishami said of graffiti artists, also known as “taggers.” “Instead of punishing those people, why don’t we give them the tools to work, give them the wall, give them the spray paint and say ‘show us what you have.’”
Abrishami suggested the city construct a wall that would be used for spray painting, or divvy out sections of sidewalks to different spray paint artists. He compared the latter example to chalk art festivals.
Though members of the sign committee wished Abrishami well on his future efforts to eradicate graffiti, their job is informing the local business owner about what is required by city ordinance, which he is currently violating.
“I really applauded his creative effort, but it needs to be discussed in a public forum as to whether that approach is appropriate,” said Steve Hausz, a member of the sign committee and the City’s Historic Landmarks Commission.
Hausz said one of the most glaring ordinance violations with the mural is the size of the letters.
He said the ordinance stipulates that text on a business’ sign must be no larger than 12 inches, but the text on Abrishami’s mural is 21 inches.
Because the city’s municipal code when dealing with signs is wide reaching and thorough, Hausz said allowing Abrishami’s eye-catching mural to remain could be precedent setting.
Hausz said the mural also violates rules set up for the Haley and Milpas street corridors, which he admitted were due for a change.
“I personally would like to see a lot more color in that district,” Hausz said. “I think there are appropriate ways of using color.”
Jennifer Rose, an at-large public member of the Sign Committee, said Abrishami’s ideas about stifling graffiti are all well and good but should be presented before a different audience.
“[Abrishami’s presentation] just doesn’t fall with what we’ve been charged by the city’s ordinance to do,” Rose said.
Hausz said if Abrishami wishes to appeal the Sign Committee’s decision to the Architectural Board of Review, he may. If it fails there, he could make an appearance before the City Council. Abrishami said he plans to do both, not for the sake of the mural, but to explain the need to provide an outlet for graffiti artists and vandals.
“The city has to provide these young people a wall and encourage them to maybe bring more people together rather than separate people,” Abrishami said.
But for now, the mural, regardless of who and how many people like it, is out of place in the pages upon pages of city ordinance that ensure Santa Barbara’s buildings will remain, well, just the way they are.
“We can’t just have everybody grab the bull by the horns now and take matters into their own hands,” Hausz said. “We have a way we want Santa Barbara to look.”