This building is on the corner of Fifth and Union in W. Oakland. It's me looking out of the BART just east of the W Oakland station. The paved lot behind it was, a few years ago, a place where driving tests were conducted. There were lanes drawn in the blacktop and a small hill to go up and down, and a sort of mild obstacle court where they would put out cones to weave through. Maybe it was specifically made for big trucks' drivers to qualify. Anyway, those poles sticking up are for big lights to illuminate the course.
This place seems to be abandoned now by whoever was using it, and the lanes have sort of disappeared or worn away. The weeds have sprung up around the light poles, and the graffiti has stopped being painted away.
I was just in Chinatown SF last week wandering around with my camera waiting for my dental appointment and I noticed that a Banksy that was painted on Commercial Street at it's intersection with Grant Ave has been obliterated. There had been attempts to preserve it by covering with plexiglass. It has been painted over in a yellowy beige. It was a good one that I posted in my journal a few years ago of a Doctor holding up a stethoscope to a graffiti drawn heart.
It was about two years ago or more I first saw it and posted an image. First, it was all alone on a brick wall like in the picture above. Then, someone painted a giant blue dragon image that completely surrounded the Banksy, kind of crowding it. Later, some transparent plastic covering was placed over the Banksy to keep vandals from defacing it. They just defaced the plastic which quickly got all scratched up from the repeated cleaning off of the graffiti. I was over there last week like I said, and the Banksy has been painted out.
I suppose it expressed a mild peace message that conservative nitwits couldn't tolerate - like most everything else.
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(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-07 08:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-07 03:32 pm (UTC)This place seems to be abandoned now by whoever was using it, and the lanes have sort of disappeared or worn away. The weeds have sprung up around the light poles, and the graffiti has stopped being painted away.
I was just in Chinatown SF last week wandering around with my camera waiting for my dental appointment and I noticed that a Banksy that was painted on Commercial Street at it's intersection with Grant Ave has been obliterated. There had been attempts to preserve it by covering with plexiglass. It has been painted over in a yellowy beige. It was a good one that I posted in my journal a few years ago of a Doctor holding up a stethoscope to a graffiti drawn heart.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-07 05:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-06-07 06:40 pm (UTC)I suppose it expressed a mild peace message that conservative nitwits couldn't tolerate - like most everything else.