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A Tale of the City
CLANDESTINE OPS THWARTS GRAFFITIERS
A battle for the soul of Mt. Hope.
As you know from the October 27th, post, Graffiti in Mt. Hope, vandals again defaced the Cypress Street Walkway overpass tunnel and sidewall. Around the time I made that post I received a call from Alec McLeod, a long time GCCC member, about the graffiti. Mr. McLeod had taken the initiative to call the City about the graffiti’s return, and he'd spoken to Mr. Al Buco, of the Public Property and Buildings Department, who runs the Graffiti Removal operation for the city. As GCCC member Jessica Stein learned when she called the Graffiti removal hotline, Alec also learned that this department is vastly understaffed has only two people assigned to graffiti removal and that that is only one of their duties.
Rather than wait for them to ". . .get around to it", Mr. McLeod convinced Mr. Buco to send a crew out to paint over the Graffiti on the underpass and to leave the remaining paint with Mr. McLeod in case (if & when) the graffiti returns.
Sure enough, late last week Mr. Buco’s crew came out and put a very nice coat of grey paint over the graffiti and left the remaining paint with Mr. McLeod. All was well.
Until this morning when I saw newly minted graffiti defacing the wall again, right over the fresh paint! The vandals must have struck the night of the 8th or the morning of the 9th. But this graffiti was to be short lived.
An Anonymous MHGRT caught in the act of graffiti "removal"!
I phoned Mr. McLeod and informed him of the defacement. He in turn placed a call to the Mt. Hope Graffiti Removal Technicians, a newly formed clandestine citizen’s organization. Their response was swift and merciless. In a flash of paint and rollers the graffiti had been “removed” and the MHGRTs had blended back into the day.
MHGRTs -- Protecting the Innocent
Only one problem: the city crew had left Mr. McLeod the wrong colour paint. They left him a container of Urban Tan instead of the grey that had been used on the wall.
An MHGRT Stands at "Attention".
Another call to Mr. Al Buco and a short time later a container of the correct grey colour had been delivered and again the MHGRTs appeared (this time with a slender, bespectacled, female, field commander), and a colour correction was applied.
Graffiti Gone -- Urban Tan on Grey (before colour correction)
That makes Mr. Al Buco a F.O.M.H. (friend of Mt. Hope). Thank you Mr. Buco, thank you Mr.McLeod .
When citizens take action, things get done.
After all, it's a battle for the soul of Mt. Hope!
John
Posted at November 9, 2005 12:13 PM
One man making a difference, with out many words, just direct action. Thanks Alec. Four times since the City painted over the graffiti on the walls of the Cypress Street underpass, the walls were again defaced, and four times the offending scribbles were painted over again by Mt. Hope residents.
When you drive under that walking bridge and see the walls free of graffiti, know that that is because of direct community action initiated by one person with an idea, carried out to fruition for the benifit of us all.
This is action that speaks louder than words!
Posted by: John at November 14, 2005 10:57 AM
Once again, a sneak attack occured, under the cover of darkness, even as we slept, even as it poured down rain the graffiti vandals struck again last night defacing the sidewall of the Cypress Street overpass.
But in the dawns early light an alert Mt. Hope resident who lives nearby spotted the defilement, and once again a Mt. Hope Graffiti Removal Technician quickly arrived on the scene and "Poof": graffiti gone. Thanks Alec.
The battle goes on.
Posted by: John at November 10, 2005 06:12 PM