The 45/46 Street Block Association seeks to restore NYC’s oldest community mural by 2022–in time for the 50th anniversary of its painting–a project that has been in the works for almost a decade. The restoration has full support from the Manhattan Community Board 4, but requires significant funding from the City Council. The MCB4 was promised around $36,000 from the City Council but are chasing up on that promise, so that they can go ahead with the restoration. I will find out what the ideal timetable is from the MCB4 and also from the City Council, and whether the City Council has another amount of money in mind to support the restoration. The restoration team themselves has raised $49,160 but requires $36,840 more to begin work, and is awaiting confirmation from the City Council regarding the funding amount. The muralist Arnold Belkin promoted Mexican muralism and painted this anti-gentrification mural–titled “Against Domestic Colonialism”–with local children in 1972. I will try to find the contributing children to further understand the mural’s local significance. A 2012 letter to City Council was the first to support and push for the restoration, and the latest letter from August 2021 echoes its sentiments–the mural represents both Hell’s Kitchen’s past and present communities, whose neighbourhood has undergone gentrification for decades. I will talk to the West 46th Street Block Association who first started raising voluntary funds for this mural restoration in 2012. Their contacts are outdated on their website so I will have to look into who their officers are today. I will speak to the Parks and Recreation department and the mural committee leader Steve Fanto about updates and obstacles, interview residents about what the mural represents to them and their families, ask restoration artist Denise Penizzotto about their involvement, and try to contact Belkin’s widow for her perspective on the restoration. Why has it taken so long?