Bastards!

I know I shouldn't get too emotional about vandalism, but this one really irks me. I painted over a particular stoplight control box the other day. While walking past it today I noticed an entirely new set of tags...less than a day old. My wet paint sign was still there. I had to get on top of this. On with the safety vest, get the paints into the cart, and around the neighborhood again. I noticed a few new tags, painted them, and made parts of the neighborhood look nice again. We'll see how long it lasts.

Garbage Can Green

Taggers love to hit up city trash receptacles. I've found one particular can on 14th St that seems to attract more than its share of tags. I'll paint it over one day, only to find it tagged the next. I painted it Sunday, only to find it tagged Monday. Surprisingly, none of the other 2 cans on the same block were tagged. Maybe it's because of the convenience store this can sits in front of? Or maybe someone lives nearby and is claiming this turf. Either way, I don't care...I'll keep painting it. I'll probably need to get some more garbage can green.

Calling It In

I spent a good amount of time this morning entering new private property tags on the city's 311 site. I gathered several notes from my Saturday run around the neighborhood, and I was able to file about 7 tickets today. I haven't had the best of luck reporting things on line, but we'll see where it goes.

Strange Looks, A Few Thank-You's

I spent the better part of 2 1/2 hours abating Graffiti yesterday. I focused on the area bordered by Mission, South Van Ness, 15th, and 13th Streets. Tags on public property are rampant in this area. Signs, light poles, fire hydrants, mailboxes, utility closets, and just about everything else has been tagged. And a good deal of private property has been tagged an unabated as well. I painted & cleaned what I could, and called in the private property. I'm operating on the theory that the initial push to clean up the neighborhood will be hard, but that by staying on top of things we should be able to keep it clean.

That said, it'd be nice to have a few more people helping in the neighborhood.

Taggers Beware

I hate graffiti. Sure, some people think it's art. Others don't notice it. I despise it. I've never been overly impressed with the fact that someone can make up a name, stylize the text of that name, then write it on a wall. And when they write it on my wall, it irritates me even more. I've chased my share of taggers away from my house, but they always come back. They hit houses and businesses, and some of them don't bother to clean it up. That makes it even worse. Here are a few egregious examples from around my block:











I recently joined San Francisco's Graffiti Watch program, which provides me with supplies to abate graffiti on public property in my neighborhood. I've also been using seeclickfix to track some items that I can't do anything about. That's my version of public service: making my own neighborhood better...one pothole or tag at a time.