Hacker News Reader

Comment by bonoboTP | Hacker News Reader

Why does it take 85k to remove it from the wall? I'm pretty sure it doesn't cost that much. There is some ridiculous government inefficiency or embezzling happening or some kind of learned helplessness or malicious compliance. Just go, wash it off and done.

View on HN

Rediculous government ineffiency is multiple redundancies. Just government. They could replace it with another commissioned Banksy for half of that.

$84,500 in the pockets of the government's favorite contracting companies.

$500 to the guy who pressure washes it off the side of the building

The article discusses this. They attempted to wash it off the building and failed.

Scrape it off. Lose a millimeter of the stone. Not the end of the world. These are self inflicted bullshit costs that cripple the government. Use common sense. If it's legally impossible, then update the laws to be sane.

This isn’t an American building where you buy a couple of two-by-fours and some plastic siding from Home Depot. It’s a historical building made out of stone.

You think a stone building is hard to clean with a Kärcher?

Not without damaging the masonry. It wouldn't matter at all if it were a standard municipal building, but this building is protected. If Banksy stenciled another My Chemical Romance poster on the Frank Lloyd Wright Unity Temple in Oak Park, you'd get a flavor for how complicated the discussion would be.

I have no idea what that temple is or which oak park you mean but I will take your words for it

It's one of the most famous Frank Lloyd Wright buildings (and architecturally one of his most important, and, apropos this story, his building that is most like the RCJ.)

Damn, the guy was productive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Frank_Lloyd_Wright_wor...

Your comment makes me realize I know nothing about US architecture

The job requires methods more akin to restoring a painting after a knobhead splashes it with ketchup than a pressure washer, as it is a historically preserved building.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com