Apparently their neighbors reported them for renting it out as Airbnb or similar (which the city doesn't allow). Then they painted the house bright pink with giant 😜 and 🤐 emoji on it. Now the neighbors are complaining about the mural, but the city says it's on private property 🤷♂️
Honestly I'm surprised - it sounds like the kind of area that would mandate specific shades of beige paint.
(LA Times, paywall)
@OldBrushNewPaper It made international headlines?
Oh, of course it did. It's a weird story with emoji. 🤦♂️ 😂
@OldBrushNewPaper It's not really the kind of area where people would respond with better murals, though. I could see that happening in neighboring Hermosa Beach, but Manhattan Beach is...how should I say this...stuffier?
@OldBrushNewPaper Wow, I should have gone looking for the Easy Reader to begin with. (It's one of the two local papers in the area.) The owner comes off a *lot* worse with the additional background of how she allegedly treated the last long-term tenants.
@KelsonV There's a non-paywalled version of this story at the UK Guardian...
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/aug/07/the-house-painted-with-spiteful-smileys-and-other-emoji-rows
That said, I am wondering why the neighbors aren't responding in kind, rather than griping about lowering the tone of the neighborhood - but by "in kind" I mean murals that are clearly more beautiful than those represented by the initiator as "cheerful".
(Disclosure: I've threatened to paint "eyes of Buddha" that would stare into a local business...)