Big Ang’s mural is in jeopardy
Angela “Big Ang” Raiola was memorialized with a giant mural in Staten Island, but the painting may be gone soon.
The “Mob Wives” star’s face was painted on the side of her sister Janine Detore’s baby clothing boutique, Country Mouse, on Forest Avenue, with script letters reading, “I’m not here for a long time, just for a good time.”
Now, a dismayed Detore is pleading with both her landlord and Big Ang’s fans to let her keep the mural on the property.
“My landlord came to me and said there’s people in our community that want to take the mural down because it’s offensive,” Detore told TMZ on Monday. “How could it be offensive? My sister practically put Staten Island on the map.”
“It’s like losing her again. I walk up to this every morning and every night … It means so much to so many people in my family. If my landlord’s watching this, please don’t take Angela away from us again,” she begged. “She means everything to us … Have a little bit of a heart.”
Detore filed a Change.org petition to keep the mural, writing,
When my sister, Big Ang from Mobwives passed, I decided to have a hand drawn mural of her drawn on the side of my children’s boutique, which is called The Country Mouse and is located on 570 Forest Avenue S.I, NY. Since I don’t own the building, I had to get approval from my landlord and he said it wasn’t a problem so I had it painted. A year and a half as gone by since my sisters passing and since I’ve had the mural there and the amount of support I gave gotten from it has been overwhelming. I have people coming from England, Texas, Brazil, and Florida just so they can meet me and see the mural on the side of my store. A few weeks ago, my landlord decided to tell me that the mural is upsetting people and that he’s been getting calls from judges about it and he told me he wanted to paint over it. My sister, Big Ang, has done so much for the Staten Island community between Hurricane Sandy and the charity work she’s done for special needs children. People have no problem coming into my store and asking for donations, which I’m glad to give, but my landlord wants to tell me it’s ‘upsetting people,’ which I think [is] a lie. I hope I am able to gain moral support and have a bunch of petitioners sign this campaign so that my sisters mural DOES NOT GET PAINTED OVER!
As of press time, the petition had 4,785 signatures.
Big Ang passed away in February 2016 after a long battle with brain and lung cancers. She was 55 years old.
Larger than life: Big Ang (1960-2016)
