Painted traffic boxes in Bristol are causing conflict between artists and the police commission that approved the project.
The vibrant painted traffic boxes are part of Operation Traffic Box Art, a project the organization Art Squad dreamed up, and they can be seen all over Bristol.
"Each traffic box has to do with a history of Bristol or the neighborhood it's in," Art Squad captain Lindsay Vigue said.
On Tuesday night the Bristol Police Commission Board voted four to three to give the project the red light.
"A number of us on the police board, myself included, received a number of complaints that the people did not like the boxes painted. They feel it looks like graffiti," Bristol mayor Ken Cockayne said.
Project members said fundraisers pay for the supplies for local artists. They’ve done nine so far and said each box costs roughly $100-$200.
With 70 boxes in Bristol, and only about half belonging to the city, the Art Squad plans to paint at least 10 more.
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But, since a subcommittee of the police commission must approve the drawings, the mayor said some things have to change between the artists and police before they consider allowing the group to transform the normally gray boxes.
"When the drawings came to the art committee that was looking at them, if the subcommittee didn't like them or wanted a change, that person couldn't take no for an answer," Cockayne said.
John Letizia works across from a painted traffic box and he joined others voicing their opposition to the commission’s decision to stop the project after its first year.
"It just spruces it up. Makes the neighborhood nice," Letizia said.
The mayor is holding a special meeting next week to re-sketch the future of the artworks, which artists said is a stroke of genius.
