Juan Velazquez via Instagram
This mural in Arlington has hit a wall involving code compliance.
An image of an iconic baseball brawl during a Texas Rangers’ baseball game in 2016 stirred up dust of its own this week in the city of Arlington.
However, Fort Worth muralist Juan Velazquez said on Wednesday that he was told by Mayor Jim Ross that his mural on the side of Gilberto’s Taco Shop at 611 West Park Row Drive depicting Rougned Odor’s TKO of Jose Bautista is staying.
"The mayor of Arlington just told me the mural is staying," Velazquez broadcast on his Twitter forum.
The development follows news this week that the mural was in violation of city code because murals in the city are limited to downtown and the Entertainment District.
Velazquez, though, says the city’s code compliance officer never raised the issue with him or the restaurant's owner, Jose Ruiz, when he inspected the property, including the finished mural earlier this year.
“[Ruiz] called me saying he was going to have to paint over the mural in order for him to open,” Velasquez said by phone on Tuesday. “Apparently he was told that the mural had to be taken care of in order for him to move forward with the other permitting needed for his business to open.
“He was like, ‘Murals are only allowed in the downtown area,’ I felt like that was silly because there is a mural right across the street from here. I would just like the rules to make sense for all of the businesses in this area.”
The taco shop just outside the downtown district.
Ruiz, Velazquez says, was worried because he was already paying overhead on a business that hasn’t opened yet, which places him in a corner.
“He could paint over the mural and get going, but if he stands for keeping it, he could lose a ton of time and money,” Velasquez says.
The mural, an Arlington city spokeswoman said on Tuesday, was not permitted under the Unified Development Code.
Still, the spokeswoman said in an email that the city had no plans to take action on the mural.
“Painted wall murals are currently only allowed downtown and in the Entertainment District. Gilberto’s is located outside of downtown,” she wrote at the time. “The city will seek feedback from the Arlington City Council on whether it would like to make changes to the mural policy.”
The city’s Planning and Development Services Department is working with Ruiz to process the restaurant’s request for sign permits ahead of its opening, the spokeswoman said.
As for Velazquez, the artist said he would be willing to take thing down when donkeys fly.
“I’m not going to cover it up … they’re going to have to fight me if they want it gone,” he says. “I will get arrested before I cover that up.”
Velazquez says this mural was meant to be a positive statement about how much sports mean to the city and North Texas in general. “I wanted to create something that people would want to take a photo with and represents Arlington. We shouldn't be getting any grief over it. Instead, the city should put a plaque on that thing and make it into a landmark.
Cooler heads, apparently, have prevailed in what will be known as the would-be mural cover-up.