Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The "progressive" art genre hits the lower Haight

Photo by Alan Bamberger published in the SF Chronicle

From the lower Haight Street message board:

Last night the front of the loft condos at 645 Haight St was hit hard by taggers. I called SFPD and Officer Burke responded to file a formal report including taking photos of the damage. Officer Burke did an outstanding job of showing concern, issuing a case number and taking photographs. In the eight years I've lived in here this is the most extensive tagging I've seen. There's been a spike in graffiti in the neighborhood including residential, commercial and sidewalks. While this is low on the crime scale this issue shouldn't go unreported and ignored. Does anyone know if the graffiti unit of SFPD have a relationship with our neighborhood and are they paying any attention to extent of damage that's being done in Lower Haight?

I also want to point out there was a story floating around recently on a local blog about the guy who's painting salmon fish on sidewalks. The article was legitimizing this graffiti as street art. Cute or not, it's illegal, ugly, and the tagger should be cited.

The annual cost of covering up graffiti on our building alone would be in the thousands of dollars if we didn't have a dedicated owner in our building keep on top of the weekly tags.

It would be a staggering number if we calculated the time and money it takes to remove graffiti in the Lower Haight neighborhood.

Mark

Mark understands that this form of vandalism is sanctioned by many city progressives, including Matt Gonzalez and Bay Guardian editor Tim Redmond. The city spends a lot of money dealing with this form of vandalism, and it would be helpful if progressives stopped enabling it.

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2 Comments:

At 1:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I believe that Officer Christopher Putz of the San Francisco Police Department's graffiti unit should receive a photo of the tag before you remove it, that way a case can be built if they catch someone while using their tag.

Every neighborhood is dealing with ongoing tagging. Be it gang related or just the kids that feel they need to get their tag out as much property as possible.

Should we care? I really do believe that if tags remain longer than 24 hours they will just multiply. As a business owner who has her store sign tagged seemly every other day it is very frustrating and costly to remove.

I take it as a personal slap on the face that the progressives support activity that directly impacts our business, our neighborhood. If our business suffers then my employees will too.

The last thing I want to hear from the progressives is that well wore tag, "if you don't like it move to Walnut Creek". I was born here, let them move.

 
At 6:07 PM, Anonymous sfthen said...

The Lower Haight sure has degenerated, too bad this message board writer wasn't around there maybe 15-20 years ago before the housing projects were torn down. "Everybody selling crack. On New Year's they would go out into the central courtyard and fire their AK-47s straight up in the air to get in a little practice time.

I pulled over one afternoon at the corner market at Webster and ran in to get a soda. I had a ten dollar bill and the black woman behind the counter asked didn't I have anything smaller because to make change I would have to go back outside to wait while she locked the front door, then she'd go unlock the storeroom, get change for the ten, relock up the storeroom and then unlock the front door to let me in and sell me the soda.

This guy is worried about graffiti!

 

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