Barring a miracle, it appears Maggie Moose is headed for that big marshland in the sky.
Not long after a brick-wall painting at Maggie Moose Bakery in Medford, NJ was outlawed by local officials, the confectionery business shared a fateful update that likely spells the end of its beloved mural.
According to a Facebook post from bakery owner Candy Thibeau, Medford officials informed her there are now plans to remove her shop’s outdoor seating area in order to make room for a new AutoZone store and its access road.
This has caused Thibeau, who had been considering retaining a lawyer to fight the violation notice she received for infringing on the town’s sign ordinance, to have a change of heart.
“Even if I do fight to keep the mural as it is, I was informed I was going to lose my seating space regardless,” she wrote. “AutoZone is a huge business with huge bucks, folks. I can’t fight them on it. It’s happening. … It would not be safe to have kids running up through a roadway to get photos with [the mural]. Therefore, there is no reason to hire a lawyer and go through a huge and costly process to keep it up.”
Thibeau she said she knew about the AutoZone project before she had the mural painted, but was told it wouldn’t impact the seating area.
“The road plan changed from what was originally presented to me,” she wrote. “Had I known it would change, I would have never gotten approvals for [the mural] and put the money into making it.”
And so it seems Medford’s favorite mural isn’t meant to be. Maybe a good lawyer could’ve found a way to prevail over the town’s unbending bureaucracy, but it would’ve taken an army of Saul Goodmans to repel the corporate sprawl that was always right behind Maggie Moose, whose loveably cross-eyed gaze offered one of the most irresistible selfie backdrops on the Atlantic seaboard. R.I.P. Maggie Moose.