However, the Planning Bureau seemed unwilling to invest the effort needed to draft and establish a new sign code, recommending instead that council endorse the proposed amended version of the current code which turns murals into signs, thereby subjecting them to a 200 sq. Though this makes administering the sign code easier, it functionally annihilates community murals. As a community organizer, I have to remind myself that I can no longer advocate murals as a community organizing tool. For most community purposes or graffiti abatement purposes, this wouldn't be worth the effort. Most outdoor murals are greater than 200 sq.
Murals are, by definition, architectural.
A mural becomes part of the building's scope and design, and is as unique as the volunteers who paint it, the building which they paint it on, the street on which the building stands, the neighborhood in which the street lies, in the city thus created. Sadly, many murals already planned will most likely, never appear. The lead education community mural that Multnomah County was planning to paint will be another casualty. It's important to note that council members seemed unaware of all the discussion and testimony that had transpired in the community's debate with the Planning Commission this past year and a half. Anyone who recently attended the unveiling of the indoor mural painted by Out Front House youth at The Rebuilding Center knows how healing and empowering the mural process is for youth, and its capacity for including youth in the larger community dialogue.