Graffiti/tagging vandalism: "It's never going to stop"

Students of "The Art of Graffiti"

While muddled on development and bicycle issues, C.W. Nevius has always been good on quality-of-life issues, like homelessness and graffiti/tagging vandalism. 

He returns to the latter in a front-page story in this morning's Chronicle, reporting on shops that sell supplies to the vandals. Nevius mentions the 1 a.m. Gallery on Howard Street that's been selling these supplies for years:

"I know that a lot of vandals frequent the places, because I hear them talking about them," said Martin Ferreira, graffiti abatement officer for the San Francisco Police Department. They're obviously promoting street culture.

I blogged about 1000 Howard and vandalism back in 2009. They not only sell supplies to the vandals they also provide courses to show them how to trash the city.

Surely the city can figure out how to put these punks and their enablers out of business. A large part of the problem is that our local weeklies are also enablers of this juvenile vandalism, which they see as "art."

The city spends $30 million a year dealing with this "progressive" form of vandalism.

The lower Haight is struggling with tagging vandalism.

Nevius suggested serious jail time for these vandals in an earlier column. There are those who propose the Singapore Solution---caning---for convicted tagging vandals, which I suspect would be both a deterrent and reduce recidivism.