New La Jolla chalk drawings are vandalized
Two days after the latest “ChalkUp” in La Jolla in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, resident Lisa Attinasi, who organized the Oct. 31 event, was notified by a fellow ChalkUp participant Nov. 2 that some of the chalk had been washed away at the bottom of the Starkey Mini Park stairs on Draper Avenue.
Attinasi thought it was a “private resident, because of how it was done,” noting that the blurred chalk wasn’t entirely rinsed off.
At several other chalk drawings along the La Jolla Bike Path, the word “Trump” had been spray painted in reflective white paint.
In response, Attinasi said, she and three friends went after sunset to redo the messages, make more or turn “Trump” into “Triumph.”
“There was absolutely no reason to vandalize another person’s self-expression,” Attinasi said. “I truly feel that if they had something constructive to express from their own viewpoint, they could have done so in free available sidewalk space.”
A gathering of area residents bearing chalk to draw messages on the La Jolla Bike Path and at Starkey Mini Park on Draper Avenue the morning of Oct. 31 drew a surprise appearance by a La Jolla Parks & Beaches board member who recently generated controversy with her statements opposing such events.
Attinasi added that the morning of Nov. 3, a San Diego city worker arrived to power-wash away the messages but left when a resident showed the worker a previous La Jolla Light article in which Steve Hadley, who represents the office of San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, said the chalk drawings are “political free speech” and would not be washed away.
City spokesman Anthony Santacroce and Parks & Recreation Department Area Manager Rosalia Castruita did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did Hadley.
The city washed away drawings from similar chalk events in July and September, saying nearby residents had complained about the writings. ◆
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