tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13192610.post-40673181485934215512007-09-01T11:57:00.000-04:002007-11-24T13:01:04.202-05:00Back in the day, Berliners were more than ready to tear down the infamous <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-08-09-1985211258_x.htm">Berlin Wall</a> when the Cold War ended in 1989. Alas, some of the wall remained, and was donned a tourist attraction.<br /><br />Thanks to car emissions, Mother Nature and aging, this very wall is now crumbling away. City officials and artists are bickering about how to restore this historical site.<br /><br />See, in 1990, 118 international artists were commissioned by Berlin to graffiti a stretch of the eastern side of the wall—to which the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side_Gallery">East Side Gallery</a> belongs. Currently, 850,000 euros are needed to fly in all of these artists and have them re-graffiti their works. It's also estimated that $1.8 million are need to restore the wall's structure.<br /><br />You may be wondering what's the big controversy. Just rebuild the darn thing like we did with, oh say, <a href="http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/">Williamsburg</a>. Well, the restoration is on hold due to—what else—a lack of funding. Where's Mr. Rockefeller when you need him?Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210360190114424350noreply@blogger.com