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It's no-brainer for left-brainers
(by Barbara Christian - September 19, 2008)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
It's no-brainer for left-brainers
Full disclosure first. I am a member of the board of trustees of the Valley Art Center.
Sometimes Chagrin Falls takes itself too seriously. Much of it emanates from our by-the-book village government, which is guided by laws drafted by lawyers and administered by imperfect human beings.
Now, granted, it is the village law director who is supposed to be looking out for our best interests, and, in this age of lawsuits on steroids, we should be darn glad we have that guidance. It is that left-brain thinking that keeps our head above litigious waters. However, it does not always square with the creative right-brained ideas that give life around here its fun and sense of place.
Recently, the Valley Art Center and the Chagrin Falls board of zoning appeals came to disagreement over the definition of "mural." It was a classic clash of right-vs.-left-brain thinking.
Folks at the art center planned to paint the word "Art" on the east and west exterior walls of their Bell Street gallery and classroom building. The 8-by-12-foot word is a mural, as far as they were concerned.
"Art" celebrates what has been going on at the center for more than three decades and was to be the cherry atop phase one of VAC's building renovation, a successful project which opens to the public this week.
Appeals board members did not get it and said "Art" was nothing more than a sign -- one that would be 10 times larger than signs are allowed to be -- and, if they let VAC write "Art" on its building, soon everyone in town would want to do the same. Do they think the DiBlasi brothers will suddenly get the urge to paint "pants" on their building?
There is irony here. First, the village has vowed support of its arts and cultural institutions, because arts and culture are the new economy -- naturally occurring trademarks of our town and what competing "lifestyle centers" lack.
Second, somewhere in all of the laws, regulations and ordinances on the books in Chagrin Falls is one that forbids building owners from painting over the old, barely visible exterior signs and murals which once advertised the products once found inside.
Question: If these are so precious, why is there no room for new ones which would carry on the tradition in a town know for its traditions?
Observation: But left-brainers interpret laws like evangelicals interpret the Bible. Literally. Right-brainers view the law as not something made to be broken so much as something made of elastic.
Zoning is, as we speak, being updated to accommodate another worthwhile project, the much-wanted redevelopment of the Ivex property, so its exciting and varied uses can fit the light-industrial designation which exists there now. It proves that left-brainers can be right-brained when they try.
Now, it's time for village government to offer the same kind of accommodating consideration and support one of our town's oldest and most treasured institutions. Seems like a no-brainer.
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