An Artful Compromise, Please

A handful of merchants in the NoHo Arts District, tired of grimy, cracked sidewalks, apply a little paint and ingenuity to fixing the problem. A funky women’s clothing boutique, the kind of place where you might expect to find the perfect little faux leopard-skin handbag, gets yellow leopard spots on the sidewalk out front. A theater company gets tasteful red and gray squares. A martial arts studio gets gracefully brushed Chinese characters.

This is, after all, an arts district, or so the banners say. Creative. Bohemian. A little funky.

But then city officials come along, the same city officials who can’t seem to get the cracks fixed or the grime cleaned up, and tell the merchants to take the paint off, citing rules that prohibit painting on sidewalks.

There the merchants are, trying to make a go of it in a once (and still) blighted neighborhood, using their own time and money and resourcefulness. Trying to make things better. Trying to make things fun.

“My paint is no good, but their cruddy sidewalks are good,” says David Dion, who owns VAVOOM!, of the yellow leopard spots. “Well, I disagree.”

So do we.

Of course, sidewalks must, above all, be safe, which means not only free of cracks and buckles but slip resistant. City officials fret over lawsuits should the painted sidewalks become slippery in the rain. (Never mind the unpatched cracks.)

When contractors paint walkways, they use paint that bonds to concrete, then sprinkle silica in the paint while it’s wet to make the surface abrasive. Could such paints be used on NoHo sidewalks, or could a sealant with abrasives be applied to aid traction?

The Community Redevelopment Agency, which has spent millions trying to revitalize North Hollywood, promised to hire a consultant to look into ways “the merchants can provide artistic treatment to their sidewalks,” according to CRA project manager Lillian Burkenheim.

Surely the city can arrive at a compromise, as was done a few years ago in the dust-up over merchants putting plants and other displays on Ventura Boulevard sidewalks. Then it was pointed out that special zones, like the antique district along La Brea Avenue, allow collectibles to be on display, lending character to the area and encouraging pedestrians to stroll the sidewalks.

Which is exactly the kind of atmosphere planners have in mind for the NoHo Arts District.

North Hollywood is just a few months away from the opening of its subway station, an event that holds hope--some say the last hope--for the area’s recovery. But it still has a long way to go. And a lot of boarded-up buildings remain.

As Dion puts it, “If I came out of the subway and saw 1/8the boarded-up buildings 3/8, I’d get right back in it and go away. They haven’t done anything to beautify it, to invite people in. That’s why I painted my sidewalk.”

Don’t take that away from the fledgling arts district.