Deep in the depths of Mullen Avenue, there’s a 1950s-style house with two garage doors that have been painted with chalkboard paint. And if you look closely, you’ll find a tidy bucket of chalk sticks sitting at the foot of the doors, in case you feel inspired to make an artistic, political, cultural, territorial, or culinary statement.
Wonderful!
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Bernalwood 
Lovely family lives inside…
What a clever, idiotic way to “spin” urban graffiti into cute public art.
This is called urban blight.
Huh? I don’t follow.
Ya, and the cool thing is if you are not a Giants fan, not a Bernal fan, or not a fan of people who love bacon, strawberries, phagocytosis, rain, children, or urban blight you can get a wet sponge and wash it clean! Brilliant!
Pretty simple to me. Would you want that directly across or even next to your property? I wouldn’t and suspect most others would not either. Perhaps they were trying to be cute, or artistic or clever.
But it just does not come off that way. It’s ugly.
Fair ’nuff, but I’d be among those who disagree. I’d LOVE to have this next door.
Agreed. Something about kids being kids…if you can’t smile about that…
Setting aside the fact that I know the occupants…
I imagine having kids would be a major factor in if you’d appreciate it or not. Since my kids love to play with chalk and draw on the sidewalk in front of our house with regularity, I imagine they would be contributing to the “art” that is there.
Also, one person’s trash is another person’s art.
We have chalk on the sidewalk, backyard fence & playhouse, and the kitchen wall we did with this paint. I have some leftover, I think my garage might could use a fancy door like that.
All the neighbors know where the hose is–but most of them are “guilty” contributors too!
That is awesome!!!
Bet the owners are Burning Men types, that’s a type you know…. and a certain kind of aesthetic.
The chalkboard paint has been up for a year, as we slowly plan changes to the facade. We’ve had birthday greetings, sports chitchat, new baby welcomes, alien invaders, mad cows, babysitting offers, invitations to try homemade pancetta, and surprisingly little profanity. We even had a scavenger hunt clue that led us to BART –> Civic Center –> the main library stacks –> Grace Cathedral. It’s always fun to come home and see what’s changed.
Our neighbors’ responses have been mostly positive. The patriarch of one family was not at all amused — I believe his exact words were, “fucking yuppies teaching their fucking spoiled kids how to fucking tag.” Now he’s posting up love letters to his puppy …
Yea, I’d have to agree it’s teaching kids to “tag”. It’s the dumbing down of society and future generations who will accept less and less “quality and character” in their lives as they grow up. While I support a property owner’s right to paint their garage door any way they want, this could become dangerous. What happens when some punk kids tag that door with words like “kill fags” or “lets rape a girl”, or other hateful words.
then what?
Then you wash it off.
We should get rid of spray paint and anything else that you can write with…that will solve it.
What happens? The owners (or anyone, really) simply erases it. It’s a CHALKBOARD!
Man, you can say that about anything.
Nope. disagree. read the first part of my most recent comment as well. By providing this quasi-public wall for “expressing” onself, I feel it simply opens it up to abuse and a bad precedent. I would not like it in my neighborhood or across from me. I suspect most others would not either.
If you look at the original posted photos and stand back, they look pretty unattractive and screams GRAFFITI.
Being human opens everything up for abuse and bad precedent. If you worry about people being bad so much that you take away from good people…what does that make you? Human beings have an infinite capacity to do good…as well as bad. Why stomp out the good because you fear potential bad?
you must be a blast at parties. what this really does is teach boundaries – kids know that if there’s a chalkboard and chalk, they can write on it. i don’t see anything written on the parts that aren’t covered with chalkboard paint. don’t you think that if this was “teaching kids to tag” that they’d just keep going in the most convenient place – like the pretty white walls next to the doors? but i don’t see that.
guess what? some people like what you don’t like. you can’t justify your dislike by saying that it’s teaching “tagging” or that it’s “urban blight.” a kindergartner can tell the difference.
“All the neighbors know where the hose is–but most of them are “guilty” contributors too!”
You asked what happened if objectionable content is put up. Apparently, the neighbors are all granted license to police the content and adjust as necessary. I stand by my statement: what happens if objectionable content is put up? It is erased.
I am a neighbor. And I think it’s charming. It changes all the time. And some amazing artists have put their work up. I would be hard pressed to hose off some of the art I have seen.
I love that so much! ❤ ❤ ❤
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