Graffiti and Tagging in San Jose (280)

[sjnative]

Thread resurrection.

Why?

This problem doesn't seem to be magically going away.

We've got crews painting over the symptom of a problem the cause of which is being ignored.

Should we keep paying to have someone paint over the graffiti?

What is that over-painting service costing us?

It's like there is a working relationship between the taggers and the over-painting crews with the former giving the latter work to do with a resultant taxpayer-subsidized paycheck.

I would like to see a map of where both the taggers live and where the over-painting crews live. I wouldn't be surprised if they were from the same neighborhoods.

What is happening is a racket, however unorganized and unintended, that we are all funding and will continue to do so until we can afford a graffiti task force the likes of which we had during better times.

[Wry_Martini]

I'm pretty sure that the graffiti removal is outsourced to a third party company. If they're still using the same company they were a year or two ago, it's based out of Los Angeles. Apparently they switched to this company from the city-run abatement program because it was cheaper.

I've noticed tagging has begun to reappear on some of the green road signs on 280, which annoys me to no end.

It's not just a cosmetic issue, it's also a safety issue. If people can't clearly read exit numbers and street names, it's going to result in last minute lane changes and dangerous road conditions. (Especially visitors and people who have recently moved here, who don't know their way around yet.)

[jbunniii]

In SoCal many of the green freeway signs have spirals of razor wire covering the parts of the pole that a would-be vandal would have to traverse in order to reach the sign. We need the same thing here. Surely that would be cheaper than continually removing graffiti from the same signs, over and over.

[sjnative]

I agree that graffiti should be removed from roadway signs as they need to be legible.

What I keep noticing, though, is graffiti in out-of-the-way locations that aren't even in an motorist's line of sight- but, yes, I notice it- and doesn't interfere with a motorist's driving. It's those locations which keep getting re-graffiti'd and re-painted-over... endlessly.

Every time that location is painted over, it presents a fresh canvas for vandals who re-vandalize it. It's cyclical and I see the same location cycle at least twice a week, if not more.

It's this cyclical repainting that must be costing us all dearly, so why keep the cycle going?

[Wintermomma]

I think we ought to hide in the bushes then tag the taggers. Cost them the money and see how much they enjoy it.