Forty volunteer artists who transformed the underpass on NE Campus Parkway from an ugly grey wall to a beautiful colorful mural styles, deserve a round of applause. Organized by UW alumna Jill Rothenberger, they began painting at the beginning of the summer and put the finishing touches on last week. The mural, which the city recently threatened to remove, has been saved due to community support.

On September 20 Anthony "graffiti-is-not-art" Matlock, an official from Seattle Public Utilities, approached Rothenberger at the mural site and notified her that he was determined to paint over a number of the mural's panels. He also told Rothenberger that he would alert the Department of Transportation, which also has a vendetta against graffiti. He had a problem with a number of the mural's panels that were in graffiti style, painted with spray paint, or on the un-permitted south side of the underpass.

City officials were upset with some of the pieces because, although they were part of a permitted and legal mural, they were not individually approved and permitted. A little more than half of the artists who worked on the mural were involved with the mural planning while a little less than half just walked up with designs and joined in. Rothenberger and the other volunteers had underestimated the amount of space they would need when they applied for the permit but wanted to allow folks who came with sketches and were obviously committed to be able to participate. One of the requirements of their grant had been to engage volunteers and to be open to community involvement. Thus, they allowed them to paint on the south side of the underpass, for which there was no permit. Rothenberger argued, "How can you engage volunteers and at the same time have a mural that is pre-planned and pre-approved?" Some city officials were supportive of the additions by new volunteers while others were vehemently against them. The muralists were dealing with the contradictory regulations of the Department of Neighborhoods, Transporation, and Seattle Public Utilities, so of course they ran into problems.

But the city was not merely upset with the use of un-permitted space or un-approved designs, but the style of some of the pieces. In particular, two of the panels that had been pre-approved by the Department of Neighborhoods were targeted by other city officials as inappropriate. Matlock from Seattle Public Utilities and David Chew from the Department of Transportation objected to the style of the two pieces, mistaking the existence of permitted hip-hop-style graffiti for an implication that the city permits illegal graffiti. In actuality, not allowing people to paint in a particular style legally will encourage people who paint that way to engage in illegal activities. "On paper [the city was] really supportive of diversity but when it came down to it, this diversity was too much for them to swallow," Rothenberger says.

After the Seattle P-I published on article on the dispute on September 29 and a local radio show covered the story, community support for the mural flooded the city. There was a petition at the wall that spilled over with signatures and folks called and wrote in their support. Pressure came from all angles, supporting not just some, but all of the mural, and insisting that there is no law against any particular artistic style. The city backed off the same day, canceling a meeting with Rothenberger and other artists and issuing a retroactive permit for the art on the south side of the underpass.