California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Public Art Plan Gets Mixed Reviews

A proposal for an arch emblazoned with the words “This Is a Nice Neighborhood” has received mixed reviews at its first public hearing. “We want to continue working with these artists,” sculptor Anne Healy said after the Arts Commission hearing. Healy, head of the commission’s visual arts committee, called the $500,000 proposal “brilliant” and “wonderful.” Critics, however, outnumbered backers during the two-hour hearing. Plans for the sign, intended to grace the front of Moscone Convention Center, call for four sets of steel girders spanning the street with “This Is a Nice Neighborhood” in neon block letters. The signs would be in Spanish, Chinese and English. “This is a Los Angeles or freeway approach,” Sue Hestor told the hearing. “It doesn’t relate to pedestrians.” The commission’s visual arts committee must vote on the project before it can proceed.