"To just have a bunch of people in their folding-chair thrones telling them 'no,' it’s just really shortsighted. You have people who are playing both sides here. But what’s the side? Either Black lives matter, or they don’t."

Said Michelle Williams, the white owner of the Mermaid Cafe on Main Street, in Catskill, New York, quoted in "'A Slap in the Face': N.Y. Town Rejects Black Lives Matter Painting/The debate over whether to allow the street art has exacerbated racial tensions in Catskill, where just over a fifth of the population is Black" (NYT).

The headline uses the words "painting" and "street art" to refer to "Black Lives Matter" painted in large block letters on the street.

Vincent Seeley, the president of the board of trustees, which voted down the proposal, said they were willing to put up banners saying "Black Lives Matter," but the activists reject that alternative and insist on the large letters painted on the street.

Seeley says the board has now gotten requests "to hold a 'Blue Lives Matter' rally on Main Street, and to post an 'Unborn Child Lives Matter' and an 'All Lives Matter' banner" and they might just need to "to reconsider whether to allow any public messaging on its streets."

Along Main Street, where vintage Black Panther texts are displayed at the counter of the Magpie Bookshop and anti-racism messages have popped up on chalkboards outside restaurants, few people were willing to publicly voice opposition to the Black Lives Matter painting. Dissent has seemed to take place mainly under the cover of social media, where rancorous debates run rampant in comments.

Here's the third-highest ranked comment at the NYT:

I applaud this community for rejecting BLM demands. The article says "The proposal didn't seem like too much of an ask...". Well, it was!! I firmly believe the "silent majority" who are paying close attention but not voicing any opinion, will be heard on voting day. BLM has no right to "assume" they can put their message wherever they want. Believe it or not, other people have opinions that are "equal". BLM doesn't want equality, they want superiority and they use race and intimidation as a club to get it.

I don't think a political message should be painted in large letters on the street. The street should be kept clear and uncluttered, with the safety of drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians as the overwhelming priority. It's one thing to paint "STOP" crosswise on a street at an intersection, where the idea is to force the driver to be even more aware than usual of the need to stop. It's quite another to paint several words lengthwise on the street and to distract the driver into reading something that isn't related to driving. Quite aside from safety and neatness, the city shouldn't be choosing one political message over others and making it a semi-permanent part of the infrastructure. Political speech should be left to the people to write and speak to each other. That's community — when people can speak to each other, not when they can get the government to repeat their slogan for them in paint on the street.