SAN ANTONIO, Texas – With some hand tools and a bit of elbow grease, workers in cherry pickers quickly dismantled a piece of artwork that has greeted people on San Antonio’s East Side for nearly three decades.
A two-sided mural that has hung over a bridge on North New Braunfels Avenue near Interstate 35 since 1997 was taken down Wednesday morning.
The painting, which once depicted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on one side and colorful hands on the other, had begun to show its age.
“It was so bright at once,” said Lucia Zamudio, who has lived just steps from the bridge for the past 30 years. “I know it’s fading, and I’m glad that they’re actually doing something to it.”
Cathy Eldridge, also a long-time East Side resident, said she had been complaining about the need for a mural makeover for the past six years.
“I told (the city), I said, ‘What’s going on? Why aren’t you going to fix this sign?’” Eldridge said. “When they put it up, it was bright and beautiful. It had all hands, all colors of hands. It’s not like that anymore.”
City Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who represents District 2, where the bridge is located, announced the mural overhaul on social media.
In a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, McKee-Rodriguez said constituents had been asking him for a while to update the artwork.
McKee-Rodriguez explained that it took some work to sort through red tape and determine who owned the bridge and the sign on which the mural was located.
He said in the video that the replacement artwork would be selected through an upcoming contest. However, he offered no specific information on that process.
In a text message to KSAT 12 News on Wednesday morning, Imgard Rop, public relations manager for District 2, said her office is still working on the details of that contest.
She wrote that the office would offer an update once the plans are finalized.
The now-removed mural also came about through a contest.
Juan Miguel Ramos, one of the founding artists with San Anto Cultural Arts, said he designed the winning artwork in conjunction with other local artists who painted it.
Ramos said he would be glad to see something new replace the painting, which had lost its luster.
While that replacement has yet to be decided, Zamudio said she has trouble picturing anything else in that space.
“I really don’t know. I’m so used to that,” she said. “I’ve been here so long that I guess I don’t really want it to change much.”