Funk Zone Mural Controversy

September 20, 2019, 9:00 am 17.9k Views 81 Comments

By John Palminteri

A new mural in the Santa Barbara Funk Zone has become a popular place for selfies and group shots, but one city watchdog says the murals in the area are going up without review and this one is possibly an ad for a future business.
The artist Thomas Van Stein says he was commissioned to do the art and is not selling any product.  It resembles a retro citrus box label and features Stearns Wharf, the early days of waterfront aviation and the Funk Zone area from decades ago.

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81 Comments

  3. ANCHOO – No, it’s not because I disagree with her, it’s because complaining and demanding an investigation into something as petty and unimportant as a mural that may be a “hidden” advertisement is the epitome of time wasting. And I’m not talking about HER time, I could give a rat’s behind how she spends her time. It’s about our City Council’s time, which is OUR MONEY. She can complain all she wants on news boards, facebook, etc etc, but when she directs her complaints to the City and demands action, that becomes a waste of OUR time and money. See the difference?

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  4. Absolutely nothing to do with her being a woman. The responses would be identical if she was man. Crazy, insane etc.. the behavior is deranged.
    She is not “standing up for herself” she is deliberately time wasting and stalling projects throughout the city, she, he, IT is a menace.

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  5. Love, Love, Love AMG! She shows up and cares about our community, residents and the livability of our neighborhoods. She’s almost single-handedly prevented: metered parking in the Funk Zone, the Tiny Home for the homelessness project at the parking lot at Carrillo and Castillo and dozens of homes from being converted permanently into vacation rentals. Everyone agrees the city processes, lack of transparency and unequal treatment found in various projects are huge issues. She wants a level playing field for everyone and for the rules to be followed. We should all be grateful for everything she’s done and want the same things.

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  6. If Santa Barbara wants to start allowing advertising billboards, fine, but don’t insult our intelligence by calling it art. The owner of the buildings tells the City he wants to make a “Gateway to the Funk Zone,” (the wine bars and beer pubs in these two buildings he owns). He puts a gate in the fence at the far corner of the parking lot. Then he puts up a billboard next to the gate to attract people, lights it up, calls it art? Why make the letters half the area of the sign? Why make the letters bright yellow on a dark brown background? Why choose a phrase that did not exist until the 1990s for your allegedly historic sign? Which just happens to be “Funk Zone”? Historic? Not. Everybody wants to make a buck, fine, but don’t treat us like idiots. If you are not connected like this guy, the city won’t let you put up a sign bigger than a sheet of paper to attract customers. (Only a “slight” exaggeration). Once again the people who play by the rules get punished, feel like chumps, because no one sees THEIR sign.

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  7. Newpapers aren’t doing this work anymore, so it falls to people with time like AMG. If the City wants to play hardball they can start charging her for the staff time to put together the requests. Some Cities have done this and I haven’t heard that they have lost in Court over it. Mostly this is info that should be available to the public anyway, not stuff they have to generate.

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  8. PITMIX – The reason newspapers aren’t doing this anymore is because it is NON-news. It’s petty, useless and unworthy of their effort. Just because the “newspapers” don’t do report on certain things, doesn’t mean some nosy busybody needs to!

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  9. Don’t erode the sign ordinance. Change the ordinance if you no longer like it and the protections it has long afforded this unique community. Spend time in communities that have no restrictive sign ordinances and get back to me. New people are attracted to this area because of its careful attention to civic aesthetics, and the first thing they do is try to trash it. I don’t understand this. Same with the STR crowd – they came here to make a quick buck for themselves off our long-standing pride of ownership neighborhoods.

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  10. Think of it this way: if the artist had trademarked the words used with explicit plans to make t-shirts, and then painted this piece, it would not be permissible and considered an ad. So why should it be permissible the other way? Pretty fishy timing, in my opinion.

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  11. Preventing the homeless from being housed is not a positive. How can you “love, love, love” someone who only blocks and destroys projects. You may not have liked the tiny house project but it was an effort to help, all Anna Marie offers in ways to hinder.
    Put something into the world Anna rather trying take away everything else. Create, you’ll feel better and people will like you more.

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  13. Yes, it is an obvious branding scheme – a billboard – not art. The ABR granted (in 2014?) to Nils Hammerbeck and the Funk Zone some leeway on the mural program, but there were to be no words/advertising in the art. It should be removed.

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  17. Funk Zone Brand word mark (aka trademark) was applied for by the artist Thomas Van Stein with the US Patent and Trademark Office in July. He signed declarations as to his intent to SELL clothing items with the words Funk Zone Brand when he filed the word mark. Under the sign ordinance this so called mural because a sign due to the placement and size of the letters. The word mark sealed the deal with the artists application to register the words and place them on clothing for sale. The so call mural is a sign for a product now. Go to the the link below and enter the words Funk Zone Brand in the Search Term and then click Submit Query. You will find that Thomas Van Stein registered the words Funk Zone Brand. Other applications show the requirements for submitting the application which includes the intent to sell products with the words Funk Zone Brand. His application showed shirts with the mural and a logo. The application included all sort of clothing items…
    http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4804:1l8i0e.1.1

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  21. I usually agree with this particular city watchdog. But in this case I don’t understand why an artist cannot profit from their artwork? The only problem I see with this mural is the lighting. Murals have no reason to be lit up at night even cool ones…

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  22. Anne Marie Gott has some serious issues.
    She takes up time and resources at the City on a daily basis.
    Half the “issues” around town that draw a wtf response on edhat are literally just her, no one else is complaining and no one else thinks these things are an issue.
    I feel bad for the staff on the building counter, I’ve sat and listened to her whine and I’m often not sure how they don’t just kick her out.

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  23. At 9:32 – who the heck cares? How does this sign or his intent to market the word “Funk Zone,” affect you or any of us in any way at all? Seriously…there’s so many wonderful things to do and experience in our beautiful city. Why waste your time with this?

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  26. If it is a trademarked brand for a current product, that makes it an advertisement. The 9:32 AM poster here says it is in fact trademarked for clothing. If that is true, then the city needs to be careful. What if Big Dog put up a sign this big? People might like the artwork, but it would still be an advertisement.

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  28. Don’t get me started on her. I waiting in line at the stupid city planning counter for an hour and a half while she was at the counter asking who knows what kind of questions. Then I heard she lives in the valley and I have to wait in line?

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  32. Would not be surprising. As another recent article noted, she has enough spare time and commitment to trying to find things to attack to have averaged more than one public records act request PER WEEK in 2018 alone. Her obsession with showing up at city meetings to complain about anything and bombarding the city with document requests is transparently abusive and designed to be disruptive:
    Outside influences can cost time and money, too. Reams of Public Records Act requests that City Hall agitator Anna Marie Gott has been submitting across all departments over the last three years require hundreds of staff time hours to fulfill. In 2018, she made 57 requests ​— ​15 in June alone.

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  35. 9:59, I care, and appreciate getting this info. Why are you wasting your time criticizing people with different priorities than you? If you are the official arbiter of time-wasting then please provide your certificate and accept my apologizes.

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  41. Gott is no Pearl Chase and who is dignifying her with the title City watchdog?! the woman is just a busy body.
    Look up her attack on the Institution Ale sign, almost entirely based on the fact that they are named for an insane asylum, so what! I guess they touched a nerve huh Anne.
    As a community we should shame her. Those of us that HAVE to spend time at the City getting permits for our JOBS and those who work the City building and zoning counters are truly tired of this nag. She is commenting on this board and I think it’s fairly obvious which comments are hers.

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  42. All sides are right on this one. Its art, its an ad, its a violation of the sign ordinance, its a zoning violation and Ms. Gott is both bit of a bother and a bit of a local hero. We are lucky to have someone keepig City Hall and its minions in check. The local “news” orgs do nothing of substance. Aside from an angry poodle barking once in a while… Its just too bad there arent many others willing to spend the time to dissect and the rotting body that is Santa Barbara city government.

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  44. I have a feeling that if a man was spearheading the complaint against this sign, no one would say he was crazy, insane, etc. God forbid that a woman be articulate, strong, and stand up for herself. Apparently, we have not come a long way (baby).

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  45. 12:07 – keep reaching…. has nothing to do with her being a woman. There are plenty of male pests in the city, but she takes the cake as far as vocal opposition and time wasting. Name one other person that does this. Go ahead, I’ll wait…….

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  47. Thomas Van Stein is a respected, talented local artist and adult ed instructor. I love his mural as it has a historic look, it is colorful, and has a unique perspective. This mural adds so much to a run down part of town. It is uplifting and attractive and adds value to the area. It is not an ad.
    I certainly would have thought that a liberal city like the City of Santa Barbara would be as open to art as the City of Lompoc.
    What a silly controversy. Please stick to more serious issues in the future and allow us some joy in our city by the sea.

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  48. It’s sad to see so much negativity relating to any type of public art in SB. Seems the FZ is the only place in Santa Barbara a mural can exist and that seems to also be trampled by regulations and negativity.
    There are still a lot of artists working hard to survive in Funk Zone. Perhaps try supporting artists rather then crushing the last bit of creativity in the town. Beats looking at another tan wall.

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  51. Not to belabor this issue, but no billboards is key to the beauty of our home. Visiting in horrible Bakersfield they have filthy, porn billboards. Once you let 1 billboard in then anything can come in that is destructive and offensive. Better to keep our home beautiful.

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  55. Word Mark = Advertising = Sign. Location + Words = Sign. It is a SIGN. Critics and Supporters need to understand that Staff helped to create a fake “Funk Zone Mural Program” without ANY Authority. There is NO Agreement. The entire “Funk Zone Mural Program” is fake,. It IS against the rules. It IS against City Ordinances. Does the public want Staff to create this or any program with NO review? No review by a City Attorney. No review to make sure terms don’t conflict with City Ordinances. No notice to residents. No approval by City Council. That is what this IS about. Further, Staff members said the “mural” was a SIGN last year and wouldn’t let the SIGN go forward in the “fake” Program. Staff members knew there wasn’t a legitimate “Funk Zone Mural Program” earlier this year but City Administration decided to ignore all this and decided an unreviewed and unapproved Agreement was going to be “real.” It isn’t real. This is just another glaring problem at the City. The City has an out of control City Staff who don’t give a damn if they are following the rules or not. Why? If they don’t follow the rules and bluff and no one says anything they get away with it. If someone puts up a fuss they still might get away with it unless other residents say they don’t want a corrupt process that condones actions like this. If you want City Council to make Staff follow the rules rather than ignore them then email the City Council and tell them so: SBCityCouncil@SantaBarbaraCA.gov

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  56. It is a SIGN. It is NOT fine art. It is NOT a mural. It is NOT art. It is not painted on the building but is bolted to it. The SIGN can easily be moved to another City that wants to advertise the Funk Zone Brand or somewhere else where it can’t be seen from the public right of way. The Funk Zone Mural Program was supposed to temporarily permit a location for 3 years. If you are saying the owners of the buildings are stuck with the Murals for life there will be a problems with them. They didn’t sign up for life. If this is true then the City may NEVER create a mural program as it would have to require an extraordinary amount of over-site by the design boards and a legitimate partner like the Arts Commission to have anything permitted besides a huge amount of legal work from the City Attorney. Can you just imagine the meetings that something like this would require??? It would take years and years to accomplish and the City has more pressing things to do.

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  57. Comparing this lady to Pearl Chase is ridiculous. “Santa Barbara’s Pearl” did a lot of good for our city. Lois Sidenberg was Carpinteria’s Pearl (president of the Carpinteria Valley Association). Lois hated billboards and was instrumental in getting them banded. There used to be plenty of them between Santa Claus Lane and the entrance to Carp. I heard a trivia question on a radio program, “What is the only county in the U.S with no billboards?” Santa Barbara!

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  58. At least it’s not that godawful “Big Dogs” logo plastered all over storefronts and buildings like back in the day.
    No one really cared about signage, architecture, or businesses in the area before it became an attraction, but now that it’s a destination, everyone wants to get involved.
    All the signs, artwork, and businesses in the Funk Zone continue to provide flavor and character to the area, making it a unique and colorful addition to our town, and a little less “Stepford”.

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  59. Isn’t she trying to keep a billboard outof Santa Barbara under the guise of art? Seems like she’s trying to upload the City’s “illustrious past.” Billboards are a visual blight. This billboard MUST GO and I think she’s done the right thing.

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  60. The issue is staff working outside boundaries of Authority. The Runk Zone is part of the City, subject to rules until a special designation is authorized exempting it. I’m hoping for a City Council authorized 3-year trial exemption because I enjoy the artsy beach area full of color and novelty reminiscent of my youth.

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  61. I’d like to be allowed to designate 2 cents of my local sales tax into a fund to pay others to attend meetings, to investigate, to provide oversight and accountability like AMG. In the absence of investigative journalists or newspapers, SB and Montecito need more Anna Marie Gotts to raise issues. It’s not important whether I agree with her issues, but I applaud her commitment to volunteer time, and to file at her own expense when there appears to be wrongs. She saved us from the Tiny Houses for 40 of our 1000+ homeless at the Carillo lot. She got mega-donors to commit to build a homeless village on County Property near social, medical, and veterans services, and law enforcement. Know something, do something. It takes money to pursue and do.

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  62. A-1569084461 – YOU’RE WRONG. Local Newspapers will not report for specific reasons related to their mission, or need to generate revenue to remain in business. Talk to each publisher. The Montecito Journal which changes ownership this month is a Gazette with the purpose of selling Montecito real estate as a great manageable place to live and raise families. The NewsPress is focused now on promoting business in an effort to save Santa Barbara, reporting very little local news unless submitted via press releases or purchased from third party news services. The Indy is the alternative socialist, social- left perspective paper focused on selling the benefits of NPOs, big government, taking from you to give to me, and source for what to do, where to go. Noozhawk is the best source for objective news reporting. It operates on a tight budget needing broader community support from memberships, donors, and subscriptions to hire more journalists like Bolton and Molina. EdHat remains everyone’s only way to communicate on news: SUPPORT EDHAT with MONEY!! Support NOOZHAWK with money, to get investigative journalists on payroll.

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  63. What I hate about AMG, A-1569084461, is she’s a proud socialist, who wants to take from young career people to give to who she defines needs our money. She pushes ‘inclusionary’ rent denying that she’s pushing Council to rob me to give my earnings to somebody I don’t know, against my will. If I want to rent in a new building where I work in Santa Barbara, I must pay more: duh? Because of AMG and socialist Council Members, I choose to commute because I should not be forced to pay $300/mo more than my next door neighbor and eat only beans because AMG tells the City Leaders that cross subsidizing rents is good. Taxes are supposed to pay for subsidies, not individuals directly. Some say AMG is a communist. She is misguided.

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  64. Pearl Chase – Wikipedia: Upon returning to Santa Barbara after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Chase was appalled at the state of her hometown: “I was ashamed of the dirt and dust and ugly buildings and resolved then and there to devote my life to making Santa Barbara beautiful.”……..I’d say the comparison to Pearl Chase is definitely warranted. Ms. Gott, you gott it! Thank you for continuing in the tradition of Pearl Chase.

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  65. Her issues seem to be to call out staff procedural overreach and errors, and demand greater transparency. I have observed AMG for a few years. She has called out significant oversights, including the recent Tiny House failure to notice the public. Oversight of government is needed. Each local needs to watchdog a public meeting at any level from SBUnified and SBCC to the water board while we still can. Too few know what happened until clobbered or destroyed. EdHat is the only place locals can communicate what’s really happening. I’d like to see the EdHat communication vehicle expanded by donor dollars for the benefit of informing all.

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  66. There was a 3yr trial. The trial failed. This SIGN needs to go. The City got a SIGN and lots of murals went up without permission first. The Art Fund Rep is on video saying a mural on Mason will be replaced. It was just painted this year FOR the business in the space. The Board has to be able to trust Staff and any Partners. If you can’t trust them they need to be replaced. Additionally, there is a mural on Gray and Yananoli where tourists stand in the MIDDLE of the street to get a photo day and night. Someone is going to get hurt. Drivers in the Drunk Zone leaving or circling for a parking place have hit pedestrians in broad daylight. With a City approved mural and notice about this issue when someone gets hurt the City will get a big lawsuit because they were warned in advance and it is very obvious that an accident could happen based on the behavior of tourists and where the mural is.

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  67. If we WANT to be a city with murals, OK, we could be. Lompoc is. The presence of amateur art on walls there is somewhat charming, and a sort of thematic “look” for the town. But Santa Barbara has opted instead to focus on the Taco Bell architectural code, and has as a result a signature and easily recognizable style. If anyone wants to talk murals could we somehow vote to remove those incredibly depressing huge heads on Anacapa street?

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  68. @MANNY The Funk Zone is now The Trendy Zone. With its craft beer and winery shops it’s actually losing its charm and color. There is nothing unique about it anymore. It’s becoming just like areas in Seattle, Newport Beach, San Francisco etc..

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  69. Sad thing is, it is no longer a “funk zone”. It is a yuppie millennial cookie cutter collection of overpriced alcohol and food establishments for tourists, cruise boat passengers etc with rents so high no true “funk zone” artist or craftsman could ever afford. Needs a new name.

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  70. Keep asking why the city has to “grow” – who is really getting the financial benefit from higher property values, more tourism and more city revenues? Don’t forget they had to add an additional tax on us to just get basic infrastructure maintenance. So where does the bulk of the general city revenues actually end up ,that keeps driving city staff to encourage more, more and more growth? Follow the money that all this growth generates. Sure does not go into funding underground utilities across this, as long promised back in the 1970’s. Don’t just complain about the growth agenda, look to see who best benefits. No, it is not the developers. Keep digging and follow the food chain.

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  73. As pugnacious as AMG is, we are lucky to have someone who is willing to spend so much time to make sure our civic leaders are keeping things on the up and up. Otherwise, things quickly run amuck with young, inexperienced, untrained staffers who don’t really have much guidance or oversight from the City Council.

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  76. They aren’t. No one can tell you where they are being sold because they ARE NOT BEING SOLD.
    The retail plot behind this mural is a figment of a fantasists imagination.
    That said, Institution Ale should start making and selling them just to see Anna Marie’s face.
    Every business that has been on the receiving end of her badgering could collaborate and return the favor.

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  77. The T shirts were made to celebrate the mural unveiling, the artist has made this very clear.
    Murals are often framed.
    Art can contain words, the mere presence of words does not make something a sign, see almost all graffiti, tags etc.. NOT SIGNS.
    The City employ staff to uphold the rules and ordinances, they are qualified and trained. We do not need an unqualified busybody who thinks she knows better wasting those qualified employees time and if you think we do please go and wait in line at the City as she talks down to the counter staff who are forced to patiently listen to her complaints.
    Her arguments are complete nonsense, they are not based on some deep understanding of the City rules, for instance Institution ale shouldn’t be allowed a sign because their name mocks the mentally ill. Time wasting shouldn’t be encouraged. The City enforce the sign ordinance very well, this woman’s vendettas are not helping.

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  79. Unfortunately the beautiful and creative artwork has a prominent “Brand” section that is being trademarked by the artist. I like the mural and recommend the artist paint over the Brand word so that the mural is perhaps made acceptable for its current location. It would only slightly affect the overall balance and historical feel of the image. Or move the existing mural with Brand to a place that meets city signage codes. I’d buy a hat that had the attractive image with or without Brand.

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  80. Re-Paint & Move Sign. Good idea. If you paint over the word “Brand” and move the new “mural” to somewhere else it could be a real mural and not a sign at the entrance to the Funk Zone. Where should the new “mural” go? I have an idea. What about the Hotel Californian Parking Garage?

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