Cecilia Moran who is the owner of the gym Hardcore Fitness based in the heart of Los Angeles has been asked by her landlord to remove a mural of famous athlete Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant by Sept. 30.
She is extremely upset at this request and has been asking the entire community for help to stand up together, so this does not happen.
She has been the owner of this establishment since April 2019 and has worked with the same landlord with no issues regarding the mural before, so she did not anticipate this sudden request.
Moran thinks it is a possibility that the landlord would like to use the wall for advertising.
This mural means a lot to her especially because of the amount of people who come and see it outside of her business, she knows what a big deal this is to the city of Los Angeles and its people.
“It’s just representing what the city of LA is and the legacy for Kobe, so it brings back to the community, the love and support towards that mural is just incredible,” said Moran as she expressed deep distress about this issue. “It has become our business card because this is the face of our business.”
She also wanted to make sure people know that if the mural is removed it is not her decision.
“I have zero intentions to take it down,” said Moran as she strongly stood her ground on where she stands in this situation.
Across the street from the mural was 35-year-old Los Angeles resident Nancy Diaz, taking a picture of the artwork which, she had never done even though she had seen it before for the past few years.
“I’ve never really taken a picture of it,” said Diaz as she snapped a few photos of the mural she didn’t expect to be in danger of getting removed.
While the word about what is going on has spread rapidly and people are speaking up trying to help the situation, a few people are saying there is nothing that can or should be done because, at the end of the day, Moran owns the business, not the building so it is the landlord’s right to do as they please.
Scott Brister, a 30-year-old from Yorba Linda responded to this and said, “I think it’s really messed up because I loved watching Kobe play basketball growing up and the mural is a reminder that life is short.”
Kobemural is an account on Instagram that provides people with information about the many other murals that have been created of Kobe and/or his daughter Gianna.
This account created a petition for people to sign to try and save the mural. The petition now has over 86,000 signatures with more people signing every day.
