Who spray painted over the Nolensville Road Zoo mural that has acted as a visual gateway to the zoo for the last 3 years?
Thousands of you see this art work every day as you pass under the railroad bridge.
Mike Cooper is the artist who painted the mural. Cooper painted the work in 2007 at the request of the Flat Rock Community.
For three years the mural remained pristine.
Then, recently, an idiot with a spray paint can went wild and desecrated the columns, painting over the zoo critters.
“That sucks,” muralist Mike Cooper says getting his first glimpse of the graffiti.
“It is not only disrespectful to me, it is my art, but this was made for the community and the people. From a disrespectful standpoint, you are disrespecting your community and the city. What they don’t understand is they are disrespecting themselves. For them to do this, they are dissin themselves.”
Cooper pulls out some paint solvent and a scrub brush. His initial plan is to see if he can lift the spray paint off his art work.
At first, the spray paint comes up. Cooper is encouraged. But then, he realizes, to get the lime green paint off the monkey, he has to scrub the monkey’s face off. It’s frustrating to this professional who says this is one of the few times he has ever had to deal with this type of issue.
“Theoretically you leave it alone. It is like a professional courtesy. You don’t tag someone else’s artwork. This is not artwork. This is dog’s marking their territory. You don’t do that. There are other ways, you want to fight? How bout spray cans at 20 paces?”
Cooper also painted the Mural on Jefferson Street that was plagued with vandalism.
Cooper eventually put a special clear coat on top of the art, which will allow for quick clean up in the future, without harming the artwork underneath. Cooper says, sadly, he will do the same thing at the zoo once he repaints it.
“This is what I do. I paint murals. I don’t erase graffiti. I paint murals!
Messed Up sends the artwork to metro police. A sergeant on the gang task force tells us that the graffiti has been spotted around South Nashville, but the “tagging” is not affiliated with any gangs known throughout Music City.
By the end of the 4th of July holiday, Cooper had repainted the mural.
South Nashville Councilwoman Anna Page says the clean up cost was extensive.
“Flat Rock Heritage Foundation approved $3,500 last night to pay for the repairs. We will also ask local businesses to help with some of the funding. This is a big hit to our budget!”
At the time, Golden’s building was covered with gang symbolism.
A neighborhood group organized by Metro Councilwoman Anna Page painted over the graffiti and the building was graffiti free for six months.
Now the graffiti is back. Mr. Golden plans to paint over the mess, but he is also now looking to up the ante.
Golden says a mural that fits the automotive theme of his store and ties in with the Flat Rock Community would look great on the side of his building.
Councilwoman Page also likes the idea and has contacted schools and neighborhood organizations about the project.
Messed Up contacted respected artist Michael Cooper for his input on this plan.
Cooper, whose work can be seen at the Nashville Zoo and all around the country, tells Messed Up murals work and it is a key anti-graffiti strategy in other cities like Philadelphia.
According to Cooper, there are thousands of city sponsored murals which take potential taggers and transform them into productive artists.
Cooper says rarely do taggers spray over art work like murals, and the city of Philadelphia makes money from the murals by selling calendars and even promoting tours to look at the urban art.
“It is the kids in the neighborhood,” Golden says. ‘They want to belong to something but they don’t realize they belong to a great neighborhood here. I wish they would be more constructive, if they want to paint, paint a mural for me, cars whatever, show some pride in the neighborhood.”
What began as a series of traffic accidents seven months ago is starting to feel like disrespect to family members, whose loved ones are buried at the Nashville National Cemetery on Gallatin Road.
The problem is the wall lining the cemetery has been destroyed. There is crime tape and car parts scattered about. That debris and destruction are only a few feet away from headstones.
According to Metro Police, there were actually two wrecks at this section of wall, two weeks apart.
The first wreck on June 2nd started as a tire blowout, according to Metro Police. The Driver was cited for not having a license.
Investigators tell Messed Up the 2nd wreck on June 15th hit the same stretch of wall. The driver was a 17 year old mentally challenged teen who also was not licensed to drive.
Kim Mahone’s grandparents are buried here. She says it’s disrespectful to not repair the damage next to her grandparents’ grave.
“The whole brick wall in front of her grave is knocked down. Bumper and bricks and pieces of head light have been laying there for a while. We try calling and ask when will they fix it. I went up to the office. I get up there and they are busy, I am doing this for everyone’s family. Those people fought in the war. It’s an invasion of privacy.”
Mahone says she just wants the wall repaired. 7 months is long enough she says.
“We are upset!”
We contact regional director, Paul Martin, who tells us his agency is working on the issue, but there is no time table for repairs.
By phone Martin tells Messed Up:
“Of course we care about what happens in the cemetery and how it affects the next of kin of our soldiers. This all takes considerable time. The wall is old, and so we want to be sure to get the right materials.”
Martin tells us that the federally subsidized cemetery has a budget that allows for upkeep, but not necessarily for destruction of this magnitude.
Martin wants families to know that the cemetery is working with the parks service to address the issue and is not taking this issue lightly.
If you’ve driven around Metro recently, you undoubtedly have seen skydiving stickers on light poles, and stop signs and even mailboxes.
After numerous complaints, the Metro Legal department went after the company responsible, forcing them to clean up every single sticker.
To ensure that the sky diving company does that, the city has its 6 Metro Public Works inspectors notating where every single sticker is.
Chris Runyon is one of those inspectors. Runyon’s job typically has him out driving around looking for problems anyway. Now you can add hundreds of sticker locations to be compiled to his job description.
Sometimes Runyon stops and takes a picture of the vandalism. Most times Runyon writes the location down, later typing up his list, and sending it to Metro Legal, which forwards the locations on to the skydiving company.
“They are responsible for cleaning up every sign we find. Each week we give them a list of signs and they go and clean them up. I came out today, it looks like they have been complying,” Runyon tells me.
Runyon admits the task does slow him down a little, but he says it is worth it because it is forcing the company to clean up the vandalism.
Court documents indicate the stickers must be removed by January 12th 2010.
Messed Up asked if the city will also be reimbursed for the added expense and time to locate the stickers. So far no word on that question.
Finally, multiple calls to the legal firm representing the sky diving company were not returned.
Have you been out driving in Nashville, and suddenly had the urge to go sky diving?
There might be a reason for that.
It seems that someone has been slapping sky diving bumper stickers on stop signs all over town.
This wave of guerrilla marketing has residents and city officials stewing.
Todd Adams lives in Hillsboro Village. He noticed the stickers all around his house. Then he went home and noticed a sticker on his mail box.
The 38 year old says that crosses the line.
“They are putting graffiti all over our neighborhood. We have to see it everyday. For the hope of a little bit of business they are spreading litter all over Nashville and it is not right. If this company is not punished for this, if an example is not set, then this is a problem we will deal with over and over and over. Metro has laws on the books to prohibit this and it is time to enforce it!”
Adams says he knows someone who confronted someone posting the bumper stickers. According to Adams the person said they got 50-dollars to put up a 100 stickers.
I call the number on the sticker multiple times. Each time I request a company rep to call me back. So far SILENCE!
The woman who answered the phone does indicate to me that they give out bumper stickers, but they don’t tell people what to do with those bumper stickers.
Veronica Frazier is the Director of the Metro Beautification Division.
Frazier says the stickers are an eye sore and her department is working with the Legal department to try and stop the guerilla marketing.
“It is a violation of Metro codes,” she tells me. “It is illegal to post these signs in public right of way. They put signs in right of way and they are defacing government property.”
Frazier says she has called the company several times, and so far, no one has called her back. Frazier says the company operates out of Waverly.
Frazier says the city is considering an injunction to force the company to stop this practice.
“For crews to go out and pull them down, it takes a significant amount of time,” Frazier says. “It is time and paint and crews. The services we provide the citizens would be better used.”
You remember our story about all the hard work students put into this Jefferson Street mural and how vandals defaced it? Well, they’ve struck yet a third time, and that’s Messed Up!
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - For the third time this year, vandals have defaced a mural celebrating Nashville’s historic Freedom Riders.
Located on Jefferson Street in north Nashville and painted by local high school students, the mural captures the spirit of the Freedom Riders, who rode buses into the Deep South in the 1960s, trying to bring an end to racial segregation.
Completed in June, the mural was desecrated in mid-September.
Sometime Thursday, vandals struck again, scrawling graffiti across the artwork.
A man is killed in south Nashville earlier this month. Metro police arrest a 17-year-old Antioch High School student for the murder and call the shooting gang related.
Meanwhile, Metro Councilwoman Anna Page, who represents parts of south Nashville, tells Messed Up there has been an increase in the number of graffiti incidents.
A quick trip down Nolensville Road reveals the extent of the problem. Swirling black spray paint litters bus benches and buildings. It screams problems to anyone who sees it.
James Golden owns K&T Auto Parts on Nolensville Road.
Golden says as soon as he paints over the graffiti on his business, it mysteriously returns.
“They say I have to paint over it. I don’t know how quick, I try and paint it as soon as possible, but…”
His voice trails off as he stares at the paint on the front of his business.
I can tell he’s frustrated by this never ending process of painting over vandalism.
“People don’t respect each other’s property,” he says. “We are trying to serve this community with replacement parts, and just people don’t respect each other’s property.”
I travel around the alleys and side streets and find so much graffiti it is overwhelming.
I call a member of Metro’s task force who tells me that the ubiquitous BK I see everywhere stands for Blood Killer. I am told the 211 I see next to that is alphabetical code for BK as well.
I see BP which stands for Brown Pride. I see MS 13.
Officer Jason Cregan tells me the area is known for gang graffiti.
“It’s not a territorial battle. It is more a battle with paint to let them know, ‘Yes, we are in this area.’ I don’t think they are fighting over turf or anything.”
Meanwhile, Lt. Duane Williamson tells News 2 that the October 7 murder near Nashboro Boulevard and Longhunter Court was gang related.
He says the 17-year-old Antioch student, Christian Walters, is charged with criminal homicide in the shooting death of Dontrell McFadden.
Williamson tells us this, “The man walked up to the golf course. Dontrell McFadden was shot one time. The bullet stopped in his neck. He died at Southern Hills. We arrested [Walters] at Antioch High School. He is a known Crip. The victim was a Blood. [Walters] was interrogated and they were riding around in a car. The victim had a flag, a red bandana. They asked if he was a Blood. McFadden threw some gang signs. They disrespected him and he got out a weapon, a .38 revolver, and pulled up and shot him three to four times. This tells us if you are walking down the road showing colors, opposite gang can take a shot at you. What should bother us - a kid has a gang color, will they do something to them. This gang stuff is way out of hand.”
Councilwoman Page is doing what she can. On October 18, she and several volunteers painted over gang graffiti including the horrific mess at Mr. Golden’s auto parts store.
Mr. Golden called to say how extremely grateful he was.
Mrs. Page had this to say about the on going fight against graffiti:
“I believe that the graffiti in the district ebbs and flows. There are times we are saturated with gang graffiti and other times it is lighter. In my opinion we are experiencing a heavy amount of ‘tagging.’ I will not speculate why, for I am not expert in the field. Like many things in the 16th District, when we don’t like something - we try to fix it the best we can. I have a small ‘crew’ of citizens that have agreed to photograph and give me the address for graffiti they locate - then I in turn, report it to the proper Metro agency and the police. The most important, critical, imperative thing citizens can do is COVER the graffiti after they either contact the police or photograph and let the police know. I don’t think you could stress enough the escalation that happens when ‘tagging’ is not quickly covered.”
Page urges her constituents to continue to call Metro’s gang unit at 615-782-3301 or the police department’s main number, 615-862-8600.
The Jefferson Street mural was painted by Nashville school kids. It was conceptualized by a Franklin Muralist.
It captures the spirit of the Freedom Riders who rode buses into the Deep South trying to bring an end to racial segregation.
Completed in June, the mural was desecrated in Mid September. Police are aware of the vandalism, but they admit they don’t have much to go on.
Michael Cooper has painted many murals in his 20 years, including those at Pocket Park, 6th and Church, The Vanderbilt Coaches on West End and the guitar at the Hard Rock restaurant on Lower Broad.
Cooper says this is the first time one of his creations has been destroyed.
“As far as I’m concerned, it is a slap in the face, to the kids who put so much hard work into this. Oh it was incredibly sad, just incredibly sad that anything like that can happen today. If this was the 60s, I can see it, but come on it’s been 50 years, get over it!”
As of this writing, Art Teacher Warne Riker had 11 students from MLK H.S. and Pearl Cohn H.S. repairing the mural.
Cooper says he plans to put a protective, clear coat over the mural to protect it from future vandalism.
It’s nice that he is willing to apply the protective coating, and also sad that he even has to.
If you have any information on who desecrated the mural, contact That’s Messed Up or the Metro Police Dept.
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“That sucks,” muralist Mike Cooper says getting his first glimpse of the graffiti.
“This is what I do. I paint murals. I don’t erase graffiti. I paint murals!
Now the graffiti is back. Mr. Golden plans to paint over the mess, but he is also now looking to up the ante.
Cooper, whose work can be seen at the Nashville Zoo and all around the country, tells Messed Up murals work and it is a key anti-graffiti strategy in other cities like Philadelphia.
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Todd Adams lives in Hillsboro Village. He noticed the stickers all around his house. Then he went home and noticed a sticker on his mail box.
“As far as I’m concerned, it is a slap in the face, to the kids who put so much hard work into this. Oh it was incredibly sad, just incredibly sad that anything like that can happen today. If this was the 60s, I can see it, but come on it’s been 50 years, get over it!”
