WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — "It symbolizes industry killing art, you know, symbolizes, like I said, the city just not being there for the youth culture," said Dana Takacs of Kingston.
That was the initial reaction some art lovers in Wilkes-Barre had when they saw brackets going up on the side of 91 South Main Street.
"I was super sad I came out front the one day at work, and I noticed all these things on it, and I was like, what, who did this and why? And then the next few days, everybody was coming, I saw a bunch of posts online now, so it's kind of crazy," said Brianna Clark, the manager of Utopia on South Main Street.
According to the building owner, this wall was recently approved by the city for advertising space.
But the decision apparently means the mural, made popular by a rock group from Luzerne County, will be covered up.
"I got over 100 emails and random messages about this because of how offensive it is to the culture of music here," said Derek Jolley of Larksville. "I think it goes a little bit deeper than that. This was an established mural that served as an art piece that accompanied a record that was made by a local band, 'Title Fight,' that was very impactful and is internationally renowned, but farther than that, this kind of demonstrates the lackadaisical approach to protecting art in Wilkes-Barre."
Advocates for the mural do not believe this was done intentionally but are hoping something can be done.
"I don't believe that the people involved in putting up this advertising hardware and taking that initiative fully understood the gravity of what they were doing or the importance of the artwork that they were covering," added Jolley.
Newswatch 16 spoke with the owner of this building, and he said, even though it might be too late because there's already been zoning approval for the advertisement here, he hopes the advertising company can do something to accommodate the art by lifting the advertisement a few feet.
"It's a big thing for a small little town like us," said Clark.
In addition to the cultural impact, Brianna Clark, who manages a business downtown, said you'd be surprised by the mural's economic impact too.
"We definitely get a lot of out of town people a nice younger crowd coming in just to take pictures in front of the mural, and they definitely come in browse around shop they asked where a good place to eat is so like, they're definitely coming to do things because of this mural," said Clark.
Newswatch 16 reached out to the ad company for comment, but we haven't heard back. The effort to save the mural just came together this weekend.
With all things considered, advocates for the mural say they are reaching out to the advertising company, the art league, and the city to try and find a compromise here in Wilkes-Barre.