Portland Mayor Kate Snyder says private citizens have asked for permission to paint a Black Lives Matter-themed mural on Congress Street in front of City Hall.

The mural would be painted between Myrtle and Exchange streets, Snyder told the City Council during a workshop session Monday night.

The proposal comes three weeks after Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, in a swipe at President Trump and his tweets about people protesting George Floyd’s death, deployed city workers to paint “Blacks Live Matter” in large, yellow letters along two blocks of 16th Street leading to the White House. Since then, similar street art has appeared in cities across the country, including San Francisco; Oakland, California; Sacramento, California; Raleigh, North Carolina, and New York City.

Ryan Adams, a Portland-based painter and muralist, who owns  Better Letter Hand Painted Signs, has offered his time and labor at no cost to the city, according to Snyder. Adams and two other artists memorialized Floyd and other black people who have been killed by police officers with a large mural on the side of the Aura club on Center Street in Portland. Susanna Hunt, a local artist, also has offered her services to help create the street mural, Snyder said.

Snyder will present more specifics about their plan to the City Council at its July 13 meeting, with actual work on the mural starting sometime in August if the council approves. Snyder said the project, which would include funds for paint and supplies, would cost a minimum of $6,000. She said the funds would be raised by the artists who proposed the mural.

It would take the artists and volunteers about eight hours to finish the mural. Congress Street would need to be closed to traffic during that time, the mayor said.

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