After East Lansing city officials ordered a two-story poster of Katy Perry to be removed from the outside of a house, a group of Michigan State University students are fighting to keep their teenage dream standing tall.
Ever since one tenant received the billboard of Katy Perry from his grandmother last year, eight residents have proudly displayed their beloved pop star's image against the side of their house, located a few blocks from campus.
But a few weeks ago, the tenants received a notice from East Lansing's parking and code enforcement office, known as PACE, stating the poster must come down.
"The sign was too large," said PACE Supervisor Eldon Evans. "They did not receive a citation, they received a warning saying they needed to remove it."
Property owner David Olson, president of Community Resource Management Co., who said he is a big Katy Perry fan, has been working as a mediator to get the two sides talking.
Another resident of the house, kinesiology senior Ben Slocum, said the poster represented more than their devotion to the singer.
"The sign represents not only our love for the famous pop star but also who we are as a household," he said. "We are a fun, charismatic bunch of fellas and the sign shows that to the world."
The Katy Perry sign was been erected last fall and remained propped against the side of the house, located a few blocks from campus, without protest until they took her down for the winter, Dimitry said.
The residents had collected pictures of friends, students and East Lansing residents who stopped by to take a picture with the poster.
Dimitry said he's working with the city to allow the house to put up the poster during special events, such as football games in the fall. Although it seems unlikely the men will receive support from Perry herself, he hopes she would approve of their efforts to keep her poster standing tall if she ever caught wind of the story.
"I would hope that she would think it's one of the coolest things she's heard," he said. "We love her music. We play it at a lot of our parties."
"It really was kind of a landmark — everybody kind of knew that Katy Perry area," one of the residents said.
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The undeniable legacy and impact
