Three murals painted on an iconic stretch of San Francisco’s Mission District were recently erased, prompting an angry reaction from some community members.
SFGate reports that the murals were painted over two weeks ago, with a fourth partially erased in Clarion Alley. More than 700 murals since the early 1970s have been painted on a stretch of Valencia Street, to the intersection of 18th and Mission Streets.
Veronica Torres, the co-director of the Clarion Alley Mural Project, or CAMP, a nonprofit community group established more than 30 years ago, said in a letter that her group was “heartbroken” and “furious” over the destruction of the murals.
According to Mission Local, a representative of the group reached out to Makras Real Estate, the company that manages the building where the murals were painted. According to the website, an unidentified man was seen painting over the murals. When confronted, the man reportedly stopped. A subsequent email from the property owner said an employee was ordered to paint over “grafitti.”
CAMP said that the erasure of the murals violates verbal and written agreements with the property owner to preserve the murals dating back more than 30 years.
