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NBA Video Game Ad that Covered Community Mural in the East Village Taken Down

By Patrick Hedlund | April 6, 2010 2:03pm | Updated on April 6, 2010 2:00pm
The illegal video-game ad on the Avenue A building just south of 12th Street.
The illegal video-game ad on the Avenue A building just south of 12th Street.
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EV Grieve

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

EAST VILLAGE — Call it a slam dunk for neighborhood preservation.

A video game advertisement that painted over a longstanding community mural in the East Village last year has been removed following an outcry from local advocates and a neighborhood preservation organization.

The ad for 2K Sports’ “NBA 2K10” video game covered nearly the entire side of the building on Avenue A, just south of 12th Street, after the owner agreed use the highly visible public space to generate additional revenue for the property last October.

But the building at 189 Avenue A had previously featured a piece by well-known Lower East Side muralist Antonio “Chico” Garcia, who was hired by an animal advocacy group to paint a public-service announcement encouraging pet owners to spay and neuter their animals.

The newly painted-over building (r.) on Avenue A near the corner of 12th Street.
The newly painted-over building (r.) on Avenue A near the corner of 12th Street.
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DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

After the mural’s conversion was doggedly covered by the neighborhood blog EV Grieve, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation stepped in to contest the new advertisement’s legality and eventually help get the ad removed.

“This one is particularly egregious because it overlooks a schoolyard and it replaced a community mural,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the preservation group, noting that the property’s zoning designation prohibits advertising.

“This did seem like a particularly offensive [ad], so we were more than happy to help it get removed.”

The building owner had been issued violations by the city Department of Buildings dating back to last fall for both the advertisement and a failure to maintain the exterior of the building’s “loose cement stucco” next to a public schoolyard.

Furthermore, the animal activist who hired Chico to do the original piece claimed she had a legal contract with the building’s landlord to maintain the mural for 10 years, which should have seen it stay up through this April, MediaPost reported.

"About a year ago, the landlord that signed the contract called me about how he needed income, and he said there was an advertiser who wanted to put something up there, and would I go along with it," Irene Muschel, who runs Advocates for Animals, told MediaPost last November. "I said no, actually, and I had contacted a lawyer. But then it just faded away."

The landlord claimed Muschel had let the animal mural fall into disrepair before he decided to replace it, and EV Grieve documented the property's crumbling conditions as part of its coverage.

Currently, the wall is covered with black paint and no loose stucco appears on the building.

Berman explained that the original mural would not have been considered illegal because it advertised a public service and not a commercial enterprise.

“Obviously the city was aware” of the animal mural for years, he said. “I can't see the argument for why it would be [illegal].”