Artist fights to save his work

''The best place for Heidelberg is right here," said artist Tyree Guyton, wearing a polka-dot hat and standing in front of some of the painted car hoods that make up the 13-year-old project. ''I don't want to move it.''

Visitors from 75 countries have come to the Heidelberg Project, where 200,000 signatures fill guest books. Named for the street where it is located, the installation of so-called junk art consists of houses and green lawns adorned with stuff that mo

AP PHOTO Detroit artist Tyree Guyton has been in battle with the members of the Detroit City Council for years over the dismantling of his Heidelberg Project.

st people might lose in the depths of their basements.

Neighbors have complained, however, that the project is causing a health hazard and drawing more traffic than the street was intended for.

At a meeting yesterday, the City Council again extended for two weeks the deadline it gave Guyton to dismantle the project he had originally asked for an Aug. 24 deadline, and then asked for an extension. But now Guyton refuses to remove it at all.

''It's hard to turn your back on all these people who want you to stay," he said, as children and other supporters surrounded him. ''This project was created for the people.''

Some council members did not look kindly on the fact that the deadline came and went with little progress in removing the project.

''I view this to be a slap in the face," council member Kay Everett said. ''It needs to be gone now. If it can come down tomorrow, fine.''

Marcia Bruhn, director of the city planning commission, has been providing reports to the council on the progress of dismantling the project. But so far, she said the progress hasn't been much.

''They cleaned up some areas ... but at the same time have added new pieces," she said.

The council doesn't have the power to tell a city department to dismantle the project. That decision must be made by Mayor Dennis Archer's office - which has also said the other residents' interests must come first.

''We recognize the artistic value of the project and that the artist places on it," Felix Sharpe, Archer's legislative liaison to the council, said yesterday.

''However, the mayor respects the larger concerns of the residents of the Heidelberg area with regard to health hazards and traffic congestion, etc.''

Even if the city eventually moves in and dismantles the project, it won't be able to take away every last painted shoe or rub away the last traces of every polka dot. Some of the displays, Bruhn said, are on private land.

Guyton said he wants to keep the project alive no matter what happens.

''They have the power to knock it down, and I also have the power to put it back up," he said.

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