Riverside Market

The commissioned graffiti-style art decorating the Riverside Market is old news. After the painting party took place in early November 2006, there was a brief blurb about "neighborhood controversy" in The Bridge neighborhood newspaper, because a few neighbors liked the art, and a few neighbors thought it looked like graffiti. Ironically, both groups of neighbors, as well as the artists who painted the building, all share a common goal: beautify this part of Minneapolis.

Anyway, the neighbors who didn't like it called the cops to report the "crime," but alas, there was no crime, because the paint job was commissioned by the Seward Neighborhood Group. So it's old news.... but at this point, I am compelled to underscore the lunacy of The News, because now it's been on TV:

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_004185828.html

One quote from the news story is this,

"Just weeks after the mural's completion, illegal tags started popping up on it."

Comically, these same "illegal tags" are the reason cited by Lori Stone of the Seward Neighborhood Group, as a reason the Group commissioned the mural project. Guess it's not really the mural that's magically causing these tags now, is it then?

This same concern is evident in this excellent quote from an angry neighbor, who says,

""It's [the art on the building is] not going to stop anything -- it's just encouraging it."

Using that logic, it follows that buildings with flat walls are "just encouraging it."

Anyway, after watching that story online a few times and feeling the urge to puke, I had to go to the Market again, to check out why this is so TV news-worthy all of a sudden. I want to mention that I couldn't help but notice the complete lack of paint on anything but the building.

I drove down the alley to see the most secluded side of the Riverside Market. I was compelled to photograph the abandoned, boarded-up house right across the alley, and the long privacy fence, and thought about how maybe the Riverside Market right next to it is art, and isn't encouraging vandalism around it.

-tinyshoes