Carrboro’s Town Council met for a special meeting last Tuesday to discuss and choose where the “End Racism Now” mural will be painted.
After local artists and volunteers in Washington, D.C., painted “Black Lives Matter” in massive yellow letters on a street leading to the White House on June 5, many cities across the country are following suit – including the Town of Carrboro.
Back in June, the Carrboro Town Council began its mission to paint Carrboro’s very own Black Lives Matter mural.
Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle said while 100 percent of the council expressed support for this project, there were still going to be some hoops to jump through before the idea could come to fruition. In the two months since that June meeting, the council has seen some of those challenges play out.
At the latest town council meeting this past Tuesday, the town discussed painting a mural reading “End Racism Now” on Laurel Avenue – adjacent to the Town Commons.
To be able to paint on an open, through-traffic street, the town needed to request permission from the Federal Highway Administration – which was causing a significant delay in the mural process.
The request to paint on a public street was approved by the town in July and submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for approval on Friday, August 14.
Lavelle said while this approval process is tedious, it is necessary.
“In other words, for all of our streets we have traffic on, this is the process we have to go through,” Lavelle said. “Otherwise it has to be a street that’s kind of blocked off or walking only or a plaza or a parking lot.”
If the Federal Highway Administration approves the request, the town would be covered for potential liability in case something were to happen due to the mural compromising the integrity of the street.
Spacing of the mural’s letters and the type of paint used are also things that needed to be considered for cars to travel safely on the pavement, adhering to all pavement markings.
This request could take two to four months to process within the Federal Highway Administration, which Town Council member Barbara Foushee said is unacceptable.
“The reality is that we wanted this done yesterday,” Foushee said “I’m not waiting three or four months just to be told no.”
Foushee said the council needs to have a backup location. Thankfully, they already had one in mind.
To skirt around all the red tape, Lavelle said the council should consider using the parking lot between Town Hall and Town Commons for the mural.
“I do think it makes sense for our back-up to go ahead and look at the Town Hall parking lot again,” Lavelle said. “I mean we don’t have any streets that we can close down and that was our first choice until we decided we wanted to go on the street.”
Using this lot will provide a quick fix, as there is no approval process needed if the town already has authority over the space.
On Tuesday, the decision was unanimous. The End Racism Now mural will be painted on town property.
To see what else was discussed at Carrboro’s latest Town Council meeting, click here.
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