April 2011 Fools?The story that put Encinitas on the national media map was the city council majority (Stocks', Bond's and Gaspar's) utter cluelessness with the population's goodwill and city planner Patrick Murphy's "artless" response to the anonymous art gifted the city. This mosaic piece became known as the Surfing Madonna. On April 29, 2011, San Diego Union Tribune's Logan Jenkins gave the city a brick - see here. As expected, the city council majority has not been in any way flexible, sensitive or apologetic to the artist or anyone in the art community.
One of the worst things about the bad publicity that Stocks, Bond and Gaspar engendered nationally is that all of the council members get painted as lobotomized (to use Jenkins' characterization). It made it difficult for Teresa Barth and Maggie Houlihan, who are supportive of the public's desire for artist projects of all kinds in the community. The artist Mark Patterson came forward, extended the olive branch, acted in ways to accommodate dialog, but Stocks especially has made repeated attempts throughout this year to justify this council majority and his own missteps.
