Like the city of San Francisco, North Beach resident Micki Jones is fighting a losing battle against graffiti.
“I paint it over and it is usually tagged again in 48 hours,” said Jones, who covers up graffiti on her home and other buildings on her block. “It used to be weeks, but now those guys are out there every night.”
When it comes to symbolic statements about a city, nothing speaks louder than the painted scrawls on walls. They say a neighborhood is either unwilling, or unable, to stop vandalism. Graffiti infuriates homeowners, degrades streets and undercuts civil pride.
And yet it happens over and over in San Francisco and has for years. How is that possible? The answers range from the economic downturn (less enforcement), to a lack of consequences (offenders aren’t taken seriously in the courts), to simple fatigue (why paint over the tags when they are back the next day?)
This isn’t a minor problem. The “broken window” theory continues to prove to be true. The theory says each broken window or graffiti tag is a test to see if anyone cares enough to fix it. San Francisco is failing the test.
“As soon as the first tag goes up all bets are off,” said Christopher Putz, the city’s graffiti abatement officer. “It’s like a dog lifting its leg. After the first one does it, every other dog has to tinkle there, too.”
Mohammed Nuru, deputy director of operations for the Department of Public Works, often hears from angry residents at community meetings, but it’s those who have given up on fighting graffiti that he remembers best.
“It is very hard to see some 75- or 80-year-old lady almost in tears because someone has vandalized her house and she can’t do anything about it,” Nuru said.
Public frustration has grown since a 2004 law made property owners responsible for cleaning up graffiti in 30 days or face a fine that could reach $500. Owners complained that it made the victims pay for the crime. Others said that the city ran out of money to pay attorneys to enforce the ordinance.
That’s not to say nothing is being done. Putz said that arrests are up this year and are likely to surpass 2008′s record total of 234. Complaints to the city’s 311 hot line have increased dramatically. And on April 23 the Graffiti Advisory Board – a 25-member group that includes residents, business leaders and city officials – will host a community meeting at the Hilton on Kearny Street to discuss new ways to fight the problem.
Still, it’s hard to disagree with Jones, who has been painting over graffiti in North Beach for 19 years.
“This is a beautiful city,” Jones said, “and it is getting trashed.”
Nuru, who lives in Bayview-Hunters Point, was incensed last week when a freeway sign near the entrance to his neighborhood was rendered unreadable by taggers.
“I totally lost it,” he said. “What I am suspecting is that the vandals are moving more in groups now. We have seen patterns of taggers going in groups to deface property.”
Putz, who has worked with graffiti abatement for over five years, doesn’t necessarily think there are more taggers nowadays. But he is frustrated with the lack of consequences for those who are caught literally red-handed.
“I’ve had kids tell me that they wouldn’t try it in Daly City because that’s San Mateo County and they are treated pretty harshly by the courts,” Putz said.
That’s seconded by Officer Troy Courtney, who was the city’s graffiti expert for seven years. Asked why some other cities, like Seattle, don’t seem to have much tagging, Courtney is blunt.
“You know why?” he asked. “Because in Seattle the first time you get caught you spend six months in jail.”
San Francisco taggers are more likely to get off with community service or probation. That’s a problem because, as is the case with other quality-of-life crimes, a small minority is causing a majority of the problems.
Putz has pushed for a single San Francisco judge to be assigned all graffiti cases so he or she could get familiar with the offenders. But, he said, “nobody wants to be the graffiti judge.”
And finally, there is a school of thought that believes this is art, not a public nuisance. Courtney said taggers come from all over the world to take photos of the San Francisco graffiti murals celebrated on Internet sites and in books.
“It’s like collecting baseball cards,” Courtney said.
For residents like Jones, that’s going to be tough to sell.
“I don’t care if you are Michelangelo,” she said. “If you don’t have permission to write on my building, don’t do it.”
Via:www.sfgate.com
PORTSMOUTH — A former city resident who spray painted graffiti on seven buildings was fined, given a suspended jail sentence, ordered to perform community service and to pay $2,320 in restitution.
An 18-year-old from Staten Island’s Meiers Corner neighborhood was arrested after being caught red-handed while spray-painting the tag “DOPE” on a mailbox and an electrical box at the intersection of Stieg and Barlow avenues in Great Kills on Thursday.
A 24-year-old man with a history of mental problems has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for a graffiti spree in which he defaced phone booths, bus shelters and public buildings from Dundas to downtown Hamilton.
ONE of Britain’s most prolific graffiti vandals, who was once paid to “tag” the EastEnders’ set, was yesterday jailed for two years. Andrew Gillman used a false name to dupe programme- makers into giving him a job while he was on bail. The casual work came after show producers decided his designs would add a touch of authenticity to the sets. By the time he finished, 11 examples of his “art” adorned some of the BBC soap’s best-known landmarks. They included the Queen Vic, Albert Square’s street sign, Phil Mitchell’s car lot and workshop, a stall outside Kathy’s Café and the entrance to Walford East Underground station. London’s Southwark Crown Court heard that it was not until much later programme-makers discovered “Eddie Jones” was Gillman, the “main mover and organiser” behind 120 night-time attacks on Britain’s stations, trains and railway rolling stock. His gang was also responsible for a number of cross-Channel expeditions. Judge Christopher Hardy said: “This was a wholesale self-indulgent campaign to damage property on an industrial scale.”Gillman, 25, of St John’s Hill, London, and seven others admitted conspiracy to commit criminal damage between January 2004 and June 2006.
Gary Shields, 21, from Glasgow, admitted spray-painting train carriages and stations across Scotland, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
His counsel Moira MacKenzie told the court she was not seeking to minimise Shields’ conduct but argued that the sheriff had “overstated the gravity of the offences”.
A GRAFFITI artist jailed for 28 months for a spraying spree today admitted his actions were wrong – and promised never to do it again.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — He was a one-man wrecking crew.
[Via:www.24dash.com]