More paint, more paint
Graffiti is one of those issues that continues to frustrate us even after decades of attempts to eradicate it. We got an e-mail recently from retired Bee staffer William K. Patterson, who covered courts for The Bee for years. He saw Pablo Lopez' story on graffiti last week and wanted to remind us of an idea he came up with years ago that involved working out an arrangement with the Fresno County Probation Department to use probationers to clean up graffiti and paint murals depicting events in Fresno County's history.
Bill wrote a commentary for the Op-Ed page back in 1997 explaining how other communities, including Philadelphia, had successfully used such a program to their benefit. He ran across a magazine article that carried a photograph of a six-story-size depiction of basketball's Dr. J. And it all was done with manpower provided by the probation department.
Did anything come of that idea locally, he wonders? Clearly not, since the murals have not yet appeared. Perhaps it's time to reconsider.
Here is Bill's original article from our archives dated April 6, 1997:
Let's paint the town
* City murals set a fine example for Fresno, too
What if there were a community effort that could give Fresnans a feeling of a return to the "good old days," reflect the roots of our city and find a dignity and a love for our town rarely seen these days?
I propose telling the story of Fresno, its humble beginnings as a railroad town, diversity of nationalities, culture and leadership in the nation's agricultural community with huge, colorful murals painted on the sides of our buildings.
I can see a pastoral scene of Native Americans as well as antelope and other wildlife on the Mariposa Mall. Or perhaps the arrival of the first Central Pacific railroad locomotive would be a good choice. Maybe we could paint Fresno's first settler, A. J. Massen, starting a primitive water works by digging a well. Perhaps a picture of the first hotel built by the Larquier brothers, Russel Fleming's livery stable, or perhaps Fresno's first store opened by Otto Froelich and Julius Beal, Millerton merchants before the county seat was moved to Fresno in 1874.
There could be murals depicting personalities like blacksmith Ah Kit and Fresno's first physician, Dr. Lewis Leach; newspaper editor J. W. Ferguson, and W. Parker Lyon, one of Fresno's more colorful mayors, as well as Dr. Chester Rowell, beloved physician, newspaper publisher and civic leader.
Other murals might show famous Fresnans such as auto race driver Billy Vukovich or champion pole vaulter Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam.
Of course, we would want to include Fresno playwright and novelist William Saroyan, ragtime composer James W. Gearhart and photographer Claude "Pop" Laval.
The murals would tell the story of Fresno from its railroad infancy to a growing metropolitan city and agribusiness center.
The inspiration for such an effort came to me during a visit to the tiny logging town of Chemainus on Vancouver Island in British Columbia a few years ago.
When the residents learned its logging mill was closing in 1983, they came up with the idea of telling the history of the town with murals.
According to Sunset magazine, Chemainus now hosts more than 400,000 vacationers who come to see their "Walls of History," a collection of 32 larger-than-life paintings recreated from early-day photographs.
Since the murals went up, Chemainus has opened a museum dedicated to the town and its logging history. The merchants and the citizens of Chemainus have prospered.
Other reasons have prompted other communities to turn to murals to tell their story to visitors.
Philadelphia, for instance, has an ongoing program to beautify its streets and reduce its graffiti by enlisting "taggers" to produce the murals with the help of local artists as mentors.
One result is a six-story high, full-length portrait of basketball star Julius Irving. According to the Smithsonian magazine, a dozen or more of the former graffiti "taggers" have found new doors of opportunity in formal art schools.
Closer to home, the central coast community of Lompoc has murals depicting local industries, early educational efforts and community activities. Some of the art works were privately commissioned by the building owners. Others were sponsored by businesses and civic organizations.
Exeter has two fine murals completed and another under way. Tulare is planning for four new murals to be a part of its downtown revitalization.
While I don't have all the answers to what it will take to have something of a like nature in Fresno, I believe a community effort could resolve many of the obstacles that might arise.
Government funds are tight at the moment, but it would be to the advantage of building owners to commission the art works to beautify and attract attention to their properties. It might even boost real estate sales.
Local artists, law enforcement and probation officers could be involved and there will be a need for a committee to take on the task of applying for grants.
There are plenty of photographs available as source materials. Among them are the Laval photographs in Jerome Laval's books "As Pop Saw It," Edwin Eaton's "Vintage Fresno," the Centennial Celebration Editor of "A Portrait of Fresno" and the archives of the Fresno City and County Historical Society.
William K. Patterson is a retired columnist and former staff writer with The Fresno Bee. He coauthored two local history books: "Fresno County: In The 20th Century" and "M. Theo Kearney: Prince of Fresno."