"Urban Forestry" Chopped Down

After a cacophony of complaints, a $20,000 piece of public art in Long Beach got the boot after less than two weeks, the Long Beach Post reports. It wasn't Richard Turner's design for "Urban Forestry," a Googie-esque metal sculpture installed near Orange and Wardlow Avenues, it was also the fact that it blocked a mural that the California Heights neighborhood considered one of its calling cards. Long Beach Transit officials didn't consult with the local neighborhood council or city councilman before putting up Turner's piece, so they had no idea about the mural. Now, it'll cost another $6,000 to pick up the sculpture and move it somewhere else. [LB Post, image via]