Yesterday’s piece on the boundaries between Pacific Heights and Western Addition (real or imagined) leads to a discussion of graffiti creep (real or imagined). It also yields our plugged-in reader’s quote of the day:
As an Architect who has had [a] cherished project tagged, my personal wish is that a graffiti punk caught in the act should be required to receive the paint or acid through one or more body orifices.
Forget the police, perhaps it’s time to unleash the Guardian Angels Architects on San Francisco. We’re thinking black berets might be a nice touch.
UPDATE: And then there’s the Guardian Agent.
∙ The Rough And Tumble “Inner City” Of Pacific Heights [SocketSite]
Amen.
I think there are worse things to worry about…
of course there are worse things to worry about….but you are on a real estate blog. I think this absurd self righteousness in S.F. is symptomatic of the problem of the graffiti and vandalism and general lawlessness creeping into our community. It seems like everyone in S.F. is too “tolerant” or “liberal” or whatever you want to call it to support some good old fashioned law enforcement.
Acid etchings, tree destruction and the like are costing homeowners and businesses thousands of dollars every year and yet there are basically no police in sight.
I get the impression that these vandals have absolutely no fear of being caught. Forget being arrested, proseuted or punished…they don’t even fear getting caught in the first place. I called the police on some tagging in progress over the summer at an elementary school in Glen Park. It looked like about 5 or 6 teenagers with spray cans. They saw us, yet continued to spray. I don’t know what happened but I did see a police car respond rather quickly.
There may be ‘worse’ things to worry about until you walk past a swastika spray painted on the side of a building in your neighborhood, like I did Friday.
I went into the business to tell them about the graffiti and they just shrugged at my and gave me the ‘what do you want me to do about it?’ stare.
So, I ended up calling the police. I waited an 1.5 hours on the sidewalk for a squad car to respond and had to file the report myself, no one in the business wanted to file a complaint.
Why was I willing to wait that long? I went to college with Matt Hale, leader of the World Church of the Creator, and currently residing in federal prison after plotting to murder a federal judge. The plot was discovered by an FBI mole who was planted in the organization AFTER one of Matt’s followers went on a shooting spree in IL and IN leaving behind a string of dead and wounded. Among the dead, Ricky Birdsong the head coach of Northwestern’s men’s basketball team.
Either SF residents wake up and stand up for the city and take some responsibility for the neighborhoods and stop being so ‘tolerant’ or people who think like Matt Hale get the sense they can do whatever they want.
Being tolerant doesn’t mean you tolerate crime and quality of life issues that ultimate lead to greater social ills.
*rant off*
sorry, I forgot to include that we, the students, had to ‘tolerate’ Matt’s weekly racist tirades in the university newspaper. This was a result of deal struck between him and school officials to prevent Matt from forming a white supremacist student group on campus.
Who or what agency do you contact in SF to have graffiti removed. The sidewalk and parking sign got tagged outside our neighbor’s place this last weekend. Would like to have it removed before it invites even more to the neighborhood.
Any suggestions outside of getting out the sand blaster myself?
I called the non emergency number for the police.
I will say NYC and Chicago both have a dedicated graffiti tip lines and a graffiti squad to help curb tagging and to catch the taggers (you can’t even buy spray paint at a hardware store within city limits in Chicago without a permit).
Don’t get me wrong I appreciate ‘the art’ in a lot of graffiti but a city has to know when to draw a line and protect to the quality of life of it’s resident’s
I was the original Architect poster. The building that was tagged is a beloved “large historic San Francisco landmark hotel” with dimensional stone base and trim elements at the corner of Market and New Montgomery.
In 1992 we had completed an almost 5 year restoration that was a true labor of love. Within less than 2 hours of the removal of the construction fences taggers had hit the original sandstone and limestone trims and the paint had gone deeply into the porous stone. Several seconds of spray paint cost over $5000.00 to repair.
But hey, graffiti is art right? Our mis-guided effort to restore a landmark? I guess that was just being a capatalist’s tool.
New York and Chicago are both infinitely cleaner than SF. It’s always depressing to return home after visiting cities like NY and Chicago that actually believe in maintaining some semblance of quality of life in their public spaces. SF is just too liberal for its own good…
http://www.sfgov.org/site/sfdpw_page.asp?id=31993
“Who or what agency do you contact in SF to have graffiti removed. The sidewalk and parking sign got tagged outside our neighbor’s place this last weekend. Would like to have it removed before it invites even more to the neighborhood.
Any suggestions outside of getting out the sand blaster myself?”
Posted by: Craig at October 16, 2007 11:32 AM
Hi Craig,
DO IT YOURSELF,
Having been the founder of the Telegraph Hill & Russian Hill Anti Grafatti group, 20 years ago, I have discovered several important points in trying to control graffiti.
1. If you do not errase it quickly, the area becomes a blackboard for further “Artists” to leave their name. So paint it out asap.
2. The US Post Office will give you, FREE, blue and green paint to paint out their mail boxes.
3. The City of SF will give you FREE paint to paint what ever you want to paint. Check with the SF Grafatti Dept.
4. DO IT YOURSELF. Often I will see grafatti on public buildings, schools and private commercial buildings, where the owner is not controlling the grafatti. I get a brush/roller, try to get the closest paint color and do it myself. Often, the neighbors will see and join in “Tom Sawyer” style. You meet new friends an encourage them to help “Save” their neighborhood.
This may not be legal, but the owner is responsible to paint or erase the grafattt and they usually like it if they have only one wall to paint, instead of several walls (which get taged, if the first tag is not painted over).
Some owners “get with it” and will continue to paint over fresh tags, which usually controls the “Artists” for awhile.
The tagers don’t like spending time and paint they usually stole on something that disappears quickly.
I done this for 2 decades, all over the city, never been arrested, mentioned in Herb Caen 3 times, and have met lots of new friends.
It’s your city, take some responsibility for it.
Frederick
Painting is great, but for those us in buildings with granite (or other) tiles on the outside, painting doesn’t do it. Acid etching means windows and tiles must be replaced at great cost to the owners. Once replaced, a month or two later the vandalism is back. It’s not as simple as just painting over it.
And the city should be fixing its own damn property. Street signs, bike racks, etc… should be repainted by city crews.
Thanks for the tip about the free paint though. There are some things we can probably paint over such as light poles, p.o. boxes and bike racks.
I agree that removing the graffiti quickly is key, we paint over tagged metal doors immediatlely and they don’t get hit very often. But the acid etchings and “keying” the windows are much more problematic. This requires a law enforcement response or a significant expenditure by private citizens- in addition to the property taxes we pay.
I’m a biz owner in SOMA and I’ve been tagged several times. If you don’t remove it promptly, the city will cite the building owner (in typical SF fashion the penalize the property owner, rather than going after the graffiti low lifes). I take care of it as soon as the sun comes up however as I want them to realize their chickenshit painting will never be seen by anyone. I’ve found that lacquer thinner which is sold in most hardware stores will easily remove fresh spray paint from most surfaces. Just wear rubber gloves and avoid inhaling the fumes.
Yeah, we’re in the Mission and it’s a constant battle. We always remove graffiti immediately, by either painting over or using “Graffiti Away” spray or both.
We’re about to remodel though, and will explore two finishes:
1. a coating over the new paint that makes it easy to clean off spray paint
2. a clear film that you put on top of glass that protects it from acid etching.
Let’s hope it works!
It’s great to see so many people upset by the slow decay of this city and I have to agree although I don’t think this has anything to do with being “too liberal” or “tolerant”. I can still be openminded and progressive but want the city to remove graffiti and stop the homeless from sleeping and urinating in public places. Compassion can go hand and hand with good law enforcement. Write your board of supervisors; attitudes can change.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/30/BA7USGF20.DTL&hw=Haight&sn=003&sc=497
Let’s not forget that public property is OUR property … we are the “City of San Francisco.” Definitely leverage the fact that the City employs people to take care of many problems (granted you may have to be a squeaky wheel to get them taken care of), but like Frederick said, if it is bugging you so much, just take care of it.
The scary thing is if this discussion was at SFGate or SFist or many other local interest sites, the pro-graffiti posts would be winning.
i just used the dpw graffiti report form on the web. i’ll let you know what happens. we have some no parking signs painted white in front of our building for about a year now.
Whatever happened to the device that listens for the signature sound of a spray can and then sounds an alarm. You could also hook it up to:
1) Open up a hatch door in the sidewalk so the taggers fall into an alligator pit.
2) Have spray paint nozzles imbedded in the walls so the taggers get sprayed with paint when they approach. Or a permanent green dye could also be used. Then we just tell the cops to look for the green guy.
3) Have water sprinklers that spray water on the wall and on the area in front to wash the paint and taggers away.
Dare I suggest violence? Where I come from taggers get their heads cracked.
i tried to find the clip from naked gun where they test the anti-graffiti wall but this is all i found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYFZXRp1b-Q
With wireless cameras so readily available and easy to hookup, I think adding additional light to the property and setting up these X10 or WiFi cameras to record would be helpful. Now, the question is, if you brought evidence to the DA, would she prosecute?
My building was tagged a couple of years ago, along with several others on my block. But, in a twist, one of my neighbors saw the person that did it, and followed him down the street where he went into another residence where a party was going on.
This information was all conveyed to me the next morning when I discovered the graffiti. I went down and knocked on the door of the flat where the party had been. I told them that I knew a guest at their party had been responsible, and that if I didn’t hear from the responsible party by the end of the day, I would involve the police. The resident of the apartment was very apologetic and said he’d do his best.
To my surprise, there was a knock on my door later that day, and a guy there who was very embarrassed and admitted to the vandalism. I told him that if he made it all right for myself and the neighbors he’d also vandalized, I wouldn’t call the police.
I made him scrape off paint samples, go to the paint store to have the color matched, buy the paint and paint over the affected areas. I then marched him over to introduce him to the neighbors and suggested they deal with him in the same way.
I later got a very heartfelt card apologizing for what happened and promising that he would never do anything like that to anyone again.
Now, of course, this story doesn’t do anything to help all those who are targeted by graffiti, and the perpetrators are seldom caught. But I felt good for (probably) nipping one budding graffiti artist’s “career” in the bud. I thought that holding him responsible for fixing the damage, and experiencing first-hand how much effort was involved in doing so, would be more valuable than any other punishment he could receive.
It’s life in the big city, just like $1200psf with leased parking.
Hell Hath No “Furry”?
And the Devil sure ain’t cuddly, either.
That said, I tend to agree with nearly every post here, especially Frederick’s at 11:59 AM.
Cheers
[Editor’s Note: It was obviously the devil’s work. And for those that didn’t notice (like us)…never mind.]
I don’t understand what is going on in these punk kids’ minds. There needs to be a very strict and apparent punishment for such a crime.
A punishment that everybody knows i.e. 1 month in jail, no excuses and a permanent record so you will neve find viable employment again.
“a permanent record so you will neve find viable employment again.”
Brilliant. I’m sure an increased rate of neighborhood unemployment and fewer opportunties for troubled youth to learn responsibility will have a wonderful impact on the community.
We need more Davids and fewer anons in this city.
just cleaned up two tags before leaving for work this morning. violent thoughts crept into my head.
How about cutting off a finger or two for each time they are caught?
Public floggings would be better. Cutting off fingers is messing and then they would just end up collecting disability.
It’s funny until you actually imagine living in a society where the government disfigures people for vandalism. Then it’s not so funny.
I liked your story, David.
I think they should make the ‘graffiti artists’ clean up the defecation (dog and human) on the public sidewalks, buildings and parks in addition to covering the cost of repainting/resurfacing the damage that they caused. It would do a service for the city and give the offenders a vivid memory to recall the next time they feel like defacing property.
I just go to home depot or lowe’s, grab a 5-gallon can of reject paint (neutral gray) and paint over the graffiti myself.
We have a vacant building across the street and since I’ve started covering it asap, the taggers go elsewhere.
In their infinite wisdom, the city will probably declare the abandoned building a historic landmark, it will rot even more and I’ll get arrested covering up the graffiti.
No joke, I honestly think water sprinklers would actually work. The hiss of a spay can is a unique sound and there are devices that can listen to them and have them trigger something such as an alarm or flood light.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20030214-9999_1mc14tag.html
Hook this device up to a water sprinkler that sprays the wall and street and soaks the taggers. No one likes to get wet and it will wash away the fresh paint.
Wow. I know there is a lot of hatred in the world but frankly I’m shocked at the sugguestion of such cruel, pointless violence as a punishment for “destruction” of property. Especialy considering most of the CHILDREN who graffiti are aged between 14 and 17. Tags annoy me a lot, theres nothing more frustrating then having “jake wax ere” written on your wall. But do we not believe in freedom of speech, and sugguesting cruel and unusual punishment for offenders, without a trial… How patriotic.
As i mentioned above, I hate tags. Though can we all hounestly say weve never been dazled by a piece of graffiti? The main reason a lot of people do not like graffiti is because they don’t understand it. real graffiti artists have reasons for spraying beyond territory. Whether it be they have no voice in their community, country, or the world they’ve been brought into, disdain for an ugly grey wall, or a statement on modern art. For those of you who know art Dada, a popular, creative, meaningful form of legal art is very similar to graffiti. Recently art has become a market, an industry and the artists have no say on how their work gets exploited. The only way to stop this is to introduce a free art, and art that cannot be sold. the world needs art that extends past mtv and commissions.
the world needs pure art.
Some people believe graffiti art has some facistic values. That people are forcing their opinions and values on the viewer by spraying something on a wall. And they are, and that is wrong. But it is no less facistic to paint over the graffiti.
Graffiti artists are afraid of getting caught. In fact terrified most of the time, and its a fear you never get over. But when you are spraying because you believe in something. You are not ashamed of the fact that you are spraying, and because of this real graffiti artists never leave a piece unfinished.
If you want to get rid of graffiti, painting over it is just giving artists something to fight for. It may be off the sign in front of your house, but check your local park the next day. If people are being oppressed. They will fight their oppression. The only way to get rid of the shitty pointless tags around your house is to decriminalise graffiti as an artform.
please try and keep an open mind.
peace out.
It’s so simple: if you see graffiti, take action. “The city” is us, who live here. Why should we tolerate vandalism? It doesn’t matter what surface or who owns it. DO IT! Clean it up yourself, as soon as you see it. I do, and it’s very effective. Sort out the details at your leisure, but first remove the graffiti. There are resources galore; what’s in short supply are citizens ready to defend their neighborhood. So quit griping and get busy.