I caught a few minutes of 5th Ward Supervisor Karl Baia on the radio today talking about the graffiti in the city. What struck was that he ‘gets’ that the issue is broader than the physical presence of graffiti. First, he gets that the aesthetic of the city and its neighborhoods matter so you need to push back against things that harm that aesthetic. Second, he articulated that he first saw this in his own ward and in advocating for his ward (my paraphrase) realized that the issue effected the entire city as well.
I posted a snarky column a while ago on the graffiti at Bacon school. You can see the images here. Unfortunately for us in the third ward, we do not have any advocates for ridding the school of its graffiti. The graffiti remains untouched since the months since I photographed it and the many months prior to my photograph. Remember that now we have a preschool at the former Bacon building whose parents and employees are greeted every morning with a graffiti laced ‘For Sale’ realty sign. And for those unfortunate to venture to the back of the buildings they may still admire the crudely rendered graffiti of male genitalia.
I’m glad Karl sticks up for his ward. Who’s sticking up for ours?
