The future of the murals in Santa Barbara’s Ortega Park remains a mystery.
What once seemed like a routine grant application to restore and rebuild the Eastside Park has turned into a cluster of competing ideas, interests and priorities.
“I am not even sure who the players are on the field, who they are on either team,” Councilman Mike Jordan said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “I can’t tell who wants what. If I were a parent of small children in this neighborhood, I would be furious.”
The city had completed a long public process to redesign the park, but late last year community members began to raise questions about the park murals, and whether they would be saved, preserved or relocated. Disagreements over the murals have marked the discussion about the park so far in 2021 and have threatened to hold up the award of an $8.6 million grant. The overall cost of renovating the park is estimated at $15 million.
The city submitted a grant application to the state in March and is still waiting to hear back. But now that there’s a lack of consensus on what to do with the park’s murals, the city may not even be able to use the grant money if awarded because the award would be based on the project that had been submitted.
“If we receive this grant money for a plan that has no buy-in from the community, I am not sure that does anyone any good,” Councilwoman Meagan Harmon said.
She noted that missing the grant opportunity could mean another five to 10 years before that amount of grant money would be available again.
“It may mean in the end our renovation looks a little different; it is a more minor renovation until we develop a consensus,” Harmon said.
The city’s Parks & Recreation Department has resisted requests to preserve the park’s 18 murals. Instead, it commissioned a report that suggested that seven of the murals could be re-created at the park.
The murals were painted between 1979 and 2011. They were created by several artists, most of them youths, and later touched up by artist Manuel Unzueta. With names such as “Ninos de Maiz,” “La Playa” and “Campesinos,” they depict Aztec, Mexican and Chicano art and have long served as the visual heart of the park.
Reproduction of the murals would cost between $5,000 and $20,000 for each mural. Relocation of the murals would cost between $118,000 and $400,000 for each mural. Digital documentation would run between $2,880 and $5,600 per mural.
There are differences in opinion among the artists and the community members about whether the murals should be re-created, moved and preserved, or some other treatment.
Councilwoman Alejandra Gutierrez has led the efforts to bring a compromise solution to the park, which is in her district. She has tried to serve as a liaison between the city and the competing community interests. Her roots run deep in the community. She was born and raised on the Eastside, and her father painted one of the murals.
“All I have been trying to do is bring everybody to the table,” she said.
The council on Tuesday night, shortly before 10 p.m., did take some action. With a vote of 6-0, the council agreed to support the development of a Mural Advisory Committee to develop a murals plan and support designation of Ortega Park as a Chicano/a cultural park.
“This is what I have been doing, and it almost seems like my efforts have not been valued,” Gutierrez said.
Parks Director Jill Zachary said that no matter what happens with the grant, it’s important for the city to have agreement and reach a consensus on a plan for the park. She suspects that the $8.6 million grant application is just one of many and that the state has probably received more than $400 million in requests because “declining park infrastructure is an issue statewide.”
“If we are ready to build a park, we are more likely to get funding,” Zachary said.
Councilman Eric Friedman said the murals are the heart and soul of the park and that “the Eastside deserves a better park than what they currently have.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
