Erasure on Election Day

This mural has adorned the side of the parking garage next to the Central Square library for as long as I can remember, perhaps for longer than I have been alive. This morning on my walk to work, I passed a crew blithely power-washing it away. I snapped these photos of what remained. This destruction of a piece of public art, one that showed and celebrated the diverse faces of the neighborhood in which I grew up (a neighborhood greatly changed by gentrification) deeply saddens me. One of the results of skyrocketing rents and housing prices is a severe lack of affordable housing - making it increasingly difficult for artists and low income families (such as many of the recent immigrants and first generation Americans I grew up with) to stay in our community.

Support the arts. Support affordable housing. Support immigrants. Go #vote @ Cambridge, Massachusetts

EDIT: The story is not all sad. The mural, which was dedicated in 1986 and repainted in 1996 was assessed and deemed beyond saving - they are removing it and several others, though with plans to replace them with new murals around the square. 

Read more about the Crossroads Mural on waymarking.com

Read more about the removal and replacement of Central Square's murals in this Camrbidge Day article "Central Square’s iconic murals are vanishing, with funds being raised for their replacements"