Downey to replace worn theater banners

The city will spend $54,000 to replace it’s theatre banners, which were installed in 2015 and have exceeded their anticipated five-year lifespan. Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY - The city of Downey will spend over $54,000 to replace the faded and torn building banners currently hanging from the Downey Theatre.

On Tuesday, the city council considered how to proceed in adorning the city’s theater building, as the banners currently displayed have exceeded their expected five-year lifespan and become wind-torn and sun-faded.

In total, their replacement will cost the city $54,588.65 from its theater account, which the council approved in a 4-1 vote.

The sole vote in opposition came from Councilman Donald LaPlante, who has been vocal about his desire to consolidate most if not all of the city’s arts, culture, and history decisions into a singular discussion.

“When we talk about what we’re going to spend our money on in arts, culture and history, this may sound like it doesn’t fall in that category, but it does,” said LaPlante. “This is $50,000, unfortunately half of which goes to construction and putting them up and taking them down and scissor lifts. So, I would like to have us consider simply pushing this item forward and including it in our complete discussion of arts and culture.”

Many of the theatre’s banners have become faded and torn over time. Photo by Alex Dominguez

Councilman Mario Trujillo suggested the ideas of murals or “immersive lighting,” however City Manager Gilbert Livas explained that the building’s somewhat difficult architecture rendered those options unappealing.

“If you look at that building, it’s a split-faced wall. What that means is that there are crevices and cracks all over that building. Anything you project on there, it doesn’t look very good because of the type of material that’s up there; it’s not smooth,” said Livas. “The other issue, with murals you’re going to have the same problem as you try to paint anything.”

“That’s our biggest challenge with that building: it’s kind of this bureaucratic beige box, and it doesn’t have a smooth surface that you can do anything really unique on, so that’s why we ended up going with the banners several years ago.”

The banners were originally installed in 2015.