HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/21/2020 Item 15, Lopes
Tonikian, Victoria
From:James Lopes <jameslopes@charter.net>
Sent:Tuesday, January
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Item 15 - AMENDMENT TO PUBLIC ART POLICY AND PROCEDURES MANUAL
City Council
City of San Luis Obispo
Dear Mayor Harmon and Council Members:
Please continue to allow actual individuals to be commemorated rather than not allow any.
Allow specific people to be honored by representational art, for their specified positive contributions to THIS
community. The depiction would need to have a plaque or some message which notes the contribution(s). Their
contributions should be well-known in historical records.
The staff report unfortunately states that the change would prohibit the depiction of "individual and actual
persons." You probably would agree that showing a person who is not identified is acceptable. In fact, staff list several
statues of individuals, such as the Gandy Dancers. So, staff is confusing the issue, and some correction needs to made in
the actual wording.
What seems to trigger your concerns are that specific, actual persons may have lived imperfect lives. They may have
been wonderful in some respects, but terrible in others. I think overall that if someone was not a criminal, that they
may have erred in a culture which supported such aberration. Honoring someone who was a racist, when their culture
was exceedingly racist, is to toss the baby out with the bathwater.
Thank you,
James Lopes
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