When a Pico Union bakery chose to paint over a mural on the side of their building last year, Serena Au knew the gang graffiti scrawled over its wall would only worsen.
Au, an occupational therapist at Sophia T. Salvin Special Education Center across the street, immediately recognized the negative impact it would have on her students. Au turned to the community for a new mural, one that would include their favorite Dodgers.
“I marched over to talk to the bakery owner to buff out the tags because my students see it every day. It was the one mural the community wanted back,” Au said, adding that the mural before depicted Salvin students, some in mobility walkers, in moments of achievement. Bilingual messages of inspiration were inscribed on the wall to uplift the students with cognitive and mobility disabilities at the school across the street…