Franklin Hills Dedicates New Mural

About 70 students from Thomas Starr King Middle School and a crowd of neighbors joined Councilmember Tom LaBonge and city beautification officials in dedicating the long-awaited mural entitled “Fluid City Rising” on the Hoover Walk in the Franklin Hills this morning.
“This beautiful mural represents the determination of this community to make Los Angeles a more beautiful city for its children,” said Councilmember LaBonge. “I am so happy to see King Middle School students here because this mural is for them.”
Area residents had initiated the mural project to clean up the frequently tagged walk, which is a cement stairway and retaining wall at the north end of Hoover St., just below Prospect St. Students from Franklin Elementary, King Middle and John Marshall High schools use the stairway to walk to school every day. Residents Mary Frances Reynolds Smith and Mary Rodriguez (who is now the Education Deputy in Council District 4) felt the graffiti sent the wrong message to neighborhood youngsters. They began applying for grants for the project in 2003 and engaged mural artist Ricardo Mendoza to paint the mural.
Getting it painted and installed took many years because the 2005 winter rains destroyed an adjacent retaining wall that was repaired through a FEMA grant. The City’s Office of Community Beautification awarded the project $15,000 in grants over two years. Council District 4 hired the art restoration firm of Nathan Zakheim & Associates when the mural wall began to crumble recently. Neighbors maintained the area for many years in anticipation of the mural installation.
Mendoza painted the mural on a huge canvas in his studio and installed it on-site in late February with the assistance of Kuva Zakheim and several assistants. Click here to see more photos from this event.