We sounded the call; Bonny K. answered!
Below, a neighbor’s letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, echoing our call for the LPC to deny the application by a new restaurateur to demolish an existing mural that speaks to our neighborhood’s layered history:
Dear Chair Robert Tierney and Landmarks Preservation Commission,
I wish to comment on the application to remove the mural at 71st and Columbus which is on the former site of Victor’s Cafe.
I agree with the Landmark West request to keep the mural intact for all of the reasons they mentioned, plus a few more.
I love this mural and have enjoyed it and the flowers that were until recently planted in front of it. Looking at the pastoral scene of the cows eating the flowers while the young boy watched over them has been a lovely reason to walk by this corner for many years …
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| Photo courtesy of Bonny K. |
Most of what makes the Upper West Side so interesting is being dismantled piece by piece. The mural is not an eyesore at all (as Mr. Hunt states) but a lovely piece of art which many of the locals I’ve talked to love.
If Mr. Hunt and his partners want a hip night club … he should have picked a site that already matched his style instead of dismantling this mural. The neighborhood has been better off with an empty storefront than a new neighbor who doesn’t understand the neighborhood!
I understand that we can’t preserve every artwork from the past but this strikes me as an excellent piece of the Upper West Side heritage.
Please join me in fighting the removal of this mural.
Thank you for expressing your concerns, Bonny. And for sharing them with LW! and our blog readers! We hope to post more personal testimonials — just like this one! — over the coming days. Stay tuned for updates, and don’t hesitate to add your own voice to this important discussion!