Whats with all the graffiti in Oakland? (neighborhood, gated)

[Natural510]

The Greyhound station is on the peripheral edge of downtown near West Oakland. It tends to be more neglected than the more central areas of downtown and districts of Lake Merritt...

[wrcousert]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Yeah! These days, we got all kinds of graffiti around these parts...err, um...

Friggin' gaggles of tagkids have invaded down here.

Tagging is everywhere. Even places you wouldn't expect it.

Why do they insist on ruining restroom mirrors? Do they really think they're going to impress someone with their carving skills? It's getting harder and harder to find a restroom that still has a mirror.

[mayorhaggar]

I went out to see the Golden Gate Bridge in SF the other day. Why are there so many goddamn bridges all over the place in San Francisco?

[wrcousert]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

I went out to see the Golden Gate Bridge in SF the other day. Why are there so many goddamn bridges all over the place in San Francisco?

I agree. Let's tear them down! Nothing like a good swim to start the work day!

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

I went out to see the Golden Gate Bridge in SF the other day. Why are there so many goddamn bridges all over the place in San Francisco?

Who put that giant bay thing in there?

[goldenchild08]

Originally Posted by jacobwilliam77

So a few weeks ago I took a trip up to San Francisco. On my way there I stopped in downtown Oakland. And all you see while driving through there is spray paint gang graffiti on buildings everywhere. Looks alot like LA type tagging.

I'm pretty sure you know the difference between street art and gang graffiti being that you are from L.A. The lazy graffiti throw ups you saw in Oakland may have been gang/turf related. You can see the same thing in San Francisco depending on what part of the city you are in. Like up and down this strip for example. Typically, when you see this much graffiti in a city like SF and it remains up for a while unpainted over, you probably aren't in the best part of town:

broad st san francisco ca - Google Maps

These types of unartistic throw up tags often mark the boundaries or main drags of certain turfs claimed by local drug dealing crews and or thugs. These tags mark the territory of a local Lakeview, SF crew known as the Randolph Mob. Primarily Black, or historically Black, neighborhoods in the Bay Area don't have big organized gangs with rules, regulations and hierarchy like Bloods and Crips in L.A., San Diego or Sacramento. Bay Area cities like SF and Oakland just have loose turf crews of kids who grew up together who mostly sell drugs for a living.

However, there is graffiti everywhere in the Bay Area. Some graffiti artists, who are not involved in gangs of any kind, just like to get their names out there by tagging random spots anywhere and everywhere. This is known as "getting up" in the graffiti world. You have to realize the Bay Area is a graffiti mecca. Most of these unartistic non-commissioned amateur-looking graffiti scrawlings are painted over pretty quickly. However, in more neglected neighborhoods, the graffiti often stays around a whole lot longer and certain areas are more heavily tagged than others.

http://www.graffiti.org/faq/graffiti.glossary.html

The only real "gangs" with a presence in the Bay Area are Latino gangs of the Nortenos and Surenos. These gangs have heavy presence in the Mission District in San Francisco, the Fruitvale area of Oakland as well as various smaller towns throughout the Bay Area. Surenos definitely exist in L.A. for sure, but Nortenos do not have a real presence in Southern California from what I know. Norteno graffiti looks something like this. Nortenos often tag "X4" or the number "14" in the color red whereas Surenos usually tag "X3" or the number "13" in blue:

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by goldenchild08

The only real "gangs" with a presence in the Bay Area are Latino gangs of the Nortenos and Surenos. These gangs have heavy presence in the Mission District in San Francisco, the Fruitvale area of Oakland as well as various smaller towns throughout the Bay Area.

Plenty of Nortenos in and around East San Jose. Funny thing is, the rash of recent freeway overpass taggings is all being done by kid taggers trying to outdo each other, and not being painted over by the city, ostensibly due to budget cuts. Looks really bad.

[Davachka]

Funny, probably because I spend much more time in San Francisco than Oakland, but I've seen hardly any graffiti in Oakland, and I see it daily in SF, around Haight, Hayes, Mission, etc

[04kL4nD]

I live in West Oakland and there are some corners here and there where it'll start becoming noticeable, but usually it gets painted over within a day or two and it's gone.

It's nothing like I've seen in LA or NYC though

[Matt Kim]

Ya gotta love those sanctuary cities!