City of Wichita deems art mural on business building to be billboard...

[ladyattis]

My own city has decided to tell what businesses can and cannot do to their buildings with regard to the presence of murals. These are the pictures of a laundromat business nearby that they deemed their mural to be a billboard. I have no doubts that the owners of this business and building intended to attract patrons through this mural, but it should be noted that this business prior to changing hands this last summer was a front for drug dealers and their ilk. When the new owners took over, they cleaned up the interior, replaced the broken or old equipment, and hired an attendent at night, so the the service could be open all night as well as all day.









There is a deeper part to this story with regard to the City of Wichita's motives, which is that it has been planning to 'revitalize' the downtown district since the closing of a local amusement park called Kiddie land and the demolition of our former downtown arena called the Forum. In that timespan of 50 years, many planners have come and gone to present their vision of what downtown Wichita ought to be, every one of them except one has been shotdown. The recent Riverwalk project has gotten some political and financial legs, which is leading to smaller businesses such as this laundromat service, to being forced to conform to 'city standards' which did not exist until now. Essentially, City of Wichita[our city government] has this vision of a downtown district housing yuppy punks in overpriced condos that we the taxpayers of Wichita must pay for since the project leaders are not buying one acre of land from the city, rather the city is leasing the land instead. Because of this, we've wasted millions of dollars to woo such companies like Gander Mountain and the Hyatt hotel chain to downtown Wichita. Both have failed to generate market success. But they are not the only ones that the City of Wichita has funded. City of Wichita has funded an ice rink, an 'Exploration Place', our local minor league baseball team's stadium, and the All American Indian Center. All have either asked for loans or were given money directly out of the coffers of the city government budget, leaving more important services to languish.

All in all, I'm really pissed off at this situation, so I thought you all should know that even in Bush Country aka Kansas, the Repukes love to spend like socialists on crack!

-- Bridget

[AlanM]

Really nice mural. Dumb, stupid government.? Get out of our lives! Particularly our pocketbooks/wallets.

[Fluff and Stuff]

...yuppy punks...

I liked the mural.  Also, I just learned that yuppies and punks live in Wichita.  It sounds like a cool place to drive through when you are going to a real city