Last night, I found myself riding down the bikelaneless Divisadero when the senseless tragedy pictured above stopped me right in my fixed-gear bicycle tracks.  In a mere 24 hours, the Harding Theater went from a pleasant Henry Gunderson mural to the colorful, somewhat rad monstrosity that it is now.  Is this just a way for taggers to tell SF “no, THIS is how you vandalize a mural”?  Or perhaps Henry himself did this for publicity and/or to make a statement against Gallery Heist for painting over the previous mural?  Either way, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the space won't be able to have murals for the foreseeable future.

With that, perhaps it is time for Gallery Heist to admit they have done gone fucked up, pissed off a lot of muralists and taggers alike, and just turn it into a public art wall.  After all, if the marketing geniuses trying to rebrand Western Addition to NOPA really want their neighborhood to be the next “bohemian” 'hood safe for people who spend 25 bucks for brunch, they'll have to realize that all world-class hipster favelas have art walls.  Central Square in Cambridge, MA has “The Wall.”  Pretty much any surface in Green Point or NYC's Meatpacking District is fair game.  And let's not forget Valencia's Art Wall.  Plus, I could look at those RACECAR tags all day.

(photo by Fecal Face, who's snap is far better than the crummy cameraphone pic I snapped)