Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Why the Kobe Bryant video game mural was removed



As we reported last week, the Kobe Bryant video game ad on Avenue A near 12th Street was painted over by workers... The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has more on what happened here in its most recent update (second item):

GVSHP and the East Village Community Coalition had long called upon the city to take action against the billboard which violated zoning regulations and, which some argued, violated an agreement to maintain the community mural for 10 years. Following complaints about the billboard from GVSHP and many others, and a great deal of attention from blog EV Grieve, the City inspected the site, issued several violations, and scheduled hearings on the violations. The sign was finally removed in late March.


And thanks to Christine Champagne at MediaPost for digging into the background of this wall in a feature last December.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Kobe Bryant's slam chunk

Searching for the truth about the cats and dogs mural on Avenue A
at

12 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 6, 2010 at 9:59 AM

    way to go! this is very gratifying.

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  2. AnonymousApril 6, 2010 at 10:40 AM

    THAT IS AWESOME! I feel so cleansed!

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  3. Jeremiah MossApril 6, 2010 at 11:15 AM

    nice job, EVG! way to help stick it to the man. maybe it's not "all for naught."

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  4. EV GrieveApril 6, 2010 at 11:21 AM

    Thanks, Jeremiah. Does this mean, though, that I need to return the Kobe game to the publicist?

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  5. T.E.V.B.April 6, 2010 at 11:23 AM

    GOOD. Way to go, EVG!

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  6. AnonymousApril 6, 2010 at 11:49 AM

    I live on 11th and though I miss the cats and dogs mural, I am ever so grateful to see the last eyesore gone completely. THANK YOU.

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  7. VH McKenzieApril 6, 2010 at 12:56 PM

    I live on 11th also and agree with Anonymous - that eyesore just harshed my mellow every morning!

    well done, EV, well done.

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  8. esquared™April 6, 2010 at 1:15 PM

    now they need to bring back chico's mural. they owe those months that kobe's ad was up there.

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  9. EV GrieveApril 6, 2010 at 1:35 PM

    Thanks all... the credit goes to Andrew Berman and the GVSHP for staying on this...

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  10. ~evilsugar25April 7, 2010 at 12:16 AM

    all well and good.. the thing that's funny to me now is: couldn't they find some matching paint? now it's a big blue box.

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  11. Free RefillsApril 7, 2010 at 4:12 AM

    Ehhh. I kind of liked the ad. I thought it was well done and certainly more interesting than a giant black square.

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  12. EV GrieveApril 7, 2010 at 5:58 AM

    @~evilsugar25.... Good point! We'll start a new campaign: Pain this building all one color! Ha.

    ReplyDelete

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