ATLANTIC CITY – The bright yellow Black Lives Matter road mural painted in September on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard created such confusion for drivers who couldn’t tell where travel lanes were located, police had to close the block between Atlantic and Pacific avenues to traffic.
City Council voted 5-3 Wednesday night to spend more than $36,000 to remove the surface of the block and repave it, and some council members expressed frustration that taxpayer dollars were so misspent. Councilmembers Latoya Dunston, Jeffree Fauntleroy II and Moisse “Mo” Delgado voted against the measure.
“We’re going to remove Black Lives Matter, but we shouldn’t have done it to begin with,” said Dunston. “We’re going to waste taxpayer dollars because we didn’t know the laws.”
Acting police Chief James Sarkos said the street was painted in such a way that it violated state Department of Transportation regulations.
“Right after the street was painted we had a lot of confusion with vehicles,” Sarkos said, referring to drivers who didn’t know where to drive or which travel direction was allowed. “It was painted the same color as the yellow lines.”
Kaleem Shabazz, 3rd Ward councilman and NAACP chapter president, said the city hopes to reopen the street before the summer. The street is in Shabazz’s ward.
“We have to get that street open because the summer season is coming,” Shabazz said. “Many of my constituents have raised concerns about the street being open.”
Shabazz said the city had no choice but to go out to bid for the project.
“We wish we could have done it in house,” he said. “We don’t have another choice.”
Shabazz said he would be in favor of moving the mural to another spot.
Mayor Marty Small Sr. said after the paint was done, the Police Department knew they had an issue.
“We tried to work through the issue with the Department of Transportation. … The street was too big to make a one-way,” Small said. “It was an oversight on our part, and when we realized it, we fixed it. The words ‘Black Lives Matter’ will still be on the street.”
City Public Works Director Paul Jerkins could not provide information on how much money was spent to create the road mural but said much of the paint was donated.
Jerkins said the type of paint used cannot be painted over, because the existing paint will bleed through anything used to cover it.
“It has to be completely taken up, repaved and directional arrows added to it,” Jerkins said. The work will be similar to a regular repaving job, he said.
“We have got to do something better,” Dunston said, “especially at a time like this when we are dealing with the pandemic crisis. It’s ridiculous.”
Councilman Mo Delgado said the community is supportive of the message, so perhaps a mural can be created elsewhere in a way that does not violate DOT regulations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michelle Brunetti
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Milton stated in “Paradise Lost” that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Apparetnly the road to racist BLM hell is always paved with bad intentions and bad results.
It must be a paving contractor who is advising the city to rip up the pavement and repave the street. In reality all they have to do is heat the present pavement with torches to melt the surface and burn the current paint off. apply a new layer of tar and put a light layer of sand in the FRESH tar. Then restripe the street with legal markings. The blm painters should have been arrested for painting the racist slogan to begin with. You have a picture of two of the painters Send them the bill to obliterate their political comments
Word!
Hell, just pay 100 or so, to get cans of BLACK paint to go OVER the BLM graffiti.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the paint gives off nasty fumes when burned. Just scarify the top half-inch, lay down a nice smooth top layer, and depositing the removed gravel to Councilman Shabazz’ driveway for relocation.
Do you realize how long that would take? Not to mention what it would cost…probably be close to just replacing it.
My suggestion to them would be to grind the surface and re-stripe…they do it all the time with concrete roads, and yes it has been done with blacktop roads.
Guess that would be too easy for these d 1 p 5 # i t demo’Rats.
These fools say they want to move the “mural” somewhere else b/c the “Community” agrees with the message?! I doubt they checked with any community! If they agree with it and their taxpayer dollars are paying for it, then they are beyond STUPID!!
THEY NEver bother ‘checking’ with those who LIVE in the affected areas, before they do stupid stuff like this.. THEY JUST DO IT, and then turn a deaf ear to any complaints.
A machine will probably be used to grind the road surface down a couple of inches then new asphalt be put down. That process is how residential streets are resurfaced in my city. A lot cheaper than ripping up the entire thick surface and replacing it. If the mayor and Mr. Shabazz want the Marxist BLM painting to be displayed so bad why don’t they paint the streets where they live? That is how the mural could be “moved”.
Before firing the moron that came up with that waste of taxpayers money, make them pay for it out of severance pay!! IDIOTS!
AND THEN make them do the work, to get rid of the logo, THEMSELVES>
Long Long LONG overdue! It should have been done immediately and paid for by the IDIOT that approved it!
Go to any big democrat controlled city. Their gang bangers who are tolerated because they “get out the vote” are allowed to vandalize millions of dollars of public and private property with spray paint and get away with it because the pandering city bureaucrats relabel it as “art”.
“it violated state Department of Transportation regulations”. Hey Mayor Marty Small Sr. why did you allow this to happen in the first place? Oh, I forgot, you, Mayor, are gutless and you bowed down to the “racist woke culture”. Small men, small minds!!!!!!!
Exactly. IF IT violated rules, WHY WAS IT allowed to get done in the first place?? OR like we’ve seen TIME AND TIME AGAIN, BLM doesn’t have to abide by the rules.
Yet ANOTHER example of the “unintended consequences” of Liberal policies!
In this case, allowing THE unruly MOB to be in charge!
You know, you Liberals keep telling OTHERS, that what WE want to say (or write) does (or might) OFFEND someone, so OUR opinions need to be banned! Yet, you give NO CONSIDERATION to those who object (and are offended) by the policies of the (misleadingly named) “Black Lives Matter” mobs!
Hell, if you were to even SUGGEST that there should be a sign (even on the side of the road) saying, “ALL Lives Matter”, you are called a racist!
It’s just a shame that Liberal Mayors and City Counsels can’t allow Law Enforcement to STOP this sort of vandalism BEFORE it happens (or gets out of control)!
IT is ALREADY out of control. Here is an idea, lets get BLM to pay to fix the streets with some of those MILLIONS of dollars donated to them from Hollywood , etc. Save the taxpayers money.
I guess black paint matters in this case. I know where the bill should be sent, but that’s just a racist presumption on my part
“NYC’s Black Lives Matter Murals Cost $6K
The money to paint four murals came from the Department of Transportation budget.”
City To Spend $36K To Pave Over ‘Black Lives Matter’ Painted On Road.
$6,000.00 to paint $36,000.00 to remove the paint = $42,000.00 that the ruling dishonorable Democrats wasted on their racist agendas.
No dang wonder that Democrat ruled cities across the country are so far in debt. And remember that 91% of the 1.9 TRILLION dollar relief Bill Con/Deception went to bail out the Democrat ruled cities and all of our taxes are going to increase to pay for the Democrats traitorous agendas.
ANd so far, it looks like 50% or more of the ‘infrastructure bill’, would do the same.
I like the gesture but couldn’t a big bucket of black paint work at least for a while, get the stupid road open?
Well, duh!! Vote these stupid morons out of office, for crying out loud!! This was so predictable and avoidable. So learn your lesson: Democrats ruin everything they touch, and never, EVER, vote for a Democrat, no matter what because they can’t think straight.
Thing is the VOTERS THEMSELVES, are the morons, KEEPING THESE elected hacks in office..
HAHAHAHAHA – thanks for my first big belly laugh of the day. Wonder what the ones in DC and NYC cost the taxpayers, or will they ever be removed? Does anyone care – probably not. I suggest deducting that expense from the “Reparations Fund” whenever that issue arises in AC, DC and NYC.
Hell, I’m surprised that the criminal blm members aren’t out there already crying how racist it is to repair the public property they defaced. How long before the city allows them to deface more public property? Once again the 13% of our population are controlling what the other 87% can say, do, or even think. Oppose them and you are automatically classified as a racist, and that is mostly because the left wing liberal democrats kow-tow to their every demand so they can keep all their votes. Is this country screwed up or what?
That’s a 36,000 dollar “Wasted Expense” that could have and should have gone to the “Community” to Help the Community keep Children of “Color” Safe and away from the influence of “Gangs” and “Gang like behavior! Educate the children to be aware of the “Perils” of becoming involved with that way of Life! I’m sure there are members of any community that would be overjoyed to see that kind of money injected into the well being and direction of the youth and would probably be willing to volunteer even on a “part-time basis to help send all children out onto the right path of Life to be Safe and Aware!
How many BILLIONS have we already WASTED, trying to “Keep the community and kids away from the gangs”??
Send the bill to Burn,Loot,and Murder aka BLM. It was their idiocy that caused this fiasco so let them pay for it. And I don’t give a fart in a windstorm how racist that sounds.If the shoe fits then let them wear it.
BLM certainly has the funds to cover the repair of their graffity! Big companies couldn’t wait to jump on the BLM wagon of HUGE donations so they could be “popular” with America! BLM is Marxist, and we’re supposed to lick their feet?!!
Round up the people who painted the sign, give them buckets of hot tar and toothbrushes and make them tar over the sign. It was a great example of B. F. Skinner in action in the Army when bad boys were given toothbrushes to clean the mess hall floor and told not to worry if they wore out the toothbrushes because there were plenty more.
If Black Lives Matter so much, how come we don’t hear about these beautiful Black babies murdered in our Democrat ruled urban paradises by Black gangsta’ thug ambulatory excrement on an almost daily basis; Secoriea Turner, Natalia Wallace, Mekhi James, Makelia Osorno, Jace Young, Elayna Saidee, Davon McNeal, Davell Gardner, LeGend Taliferro, to name just a few?
You mean BLM produces confusion and chaos?! Pardon me while I search for my shock face.
Why haven’t the fools who painted it in the first place been charged with vandalism and forced to repair it?? Imagine if it said “Make America Great Again”
AHH, but that would be racist…
This vandalizing was filmed by multiple sources. Should be easy for law enforcement to identify these law breakers and make them pay and do the work themselves, repairing the street. They can start with the mayor.
Good Job there, mayor.
Dumb@55.
It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if you paint a big message on a road OVER the safety and directional markings that a ROAD ought to have you are going to create chaos. No city should have allowed the painting of BLM on ANY roadway. You want to paint that message find a sidewalk or some other venue to do it on.
BETTER YET, take their OWN homes and paint on THEM… NOT roads that everyone ELSE paid for.
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