Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Modesto - "Graffiti Town, USA"

Obviously I am not talking about George Lucas and Wolfman Jack and our heritage of the throwback "American Graffiti" era that we relive here in Modesto.  Is it me, or is every utility box, light pole, fence post, wall, business, street sign, canal bank and whatever else standing have graffiti on it? Pictured is the women's bathroom at Enslen Park.  My brother in law has paint and often paints over any graffiti at the park.  He just painted over some in the women's bathroom last week which was tagged shortly after.  Looks like the city tried washing the black graffiti off only to be re-tagged with white paint as seen in the photos.  They are not gang taggings, just some board punks.  The other photo is a tagging at the tennis courts at Graceada.  As I type, Uncle Tom is painting over them.

My question is, is that there are city employees in the park every morning.  They can't paint over this graffiti?  Do they not have paint in their trucks?  I know the graffiti abatement the city had is no longer budgeted for, but is it NOT in the job description of these city employees to simply paint over it?  If they are driving around, can they take 2 minutes to remove a tag?




I am trying to keep it together fellow Modesto residents, but this town is becoming a s**t hole! As we get closer to election time, I stress to the new power to be's that somehow we take care of the graffiti (amongst other issues).  My brother-in-law paints over it at Enslen and Graceada as the city provides us with the paint.  I am sure if he were paid for his efforts, he and other "vagrants" would provide the service for half the pay.  It would be half volunteer, and half "give the dog a bone"!  Uncle Tom is a recycler and if it were not for myself and my wife, he would be one of the vagrants in the park.  He has some pull, and could get the use of a few other park locals to do this.  These "graffiti angels" would be scouring the city similar to their efforts in all the recycling (legal of course) that they do in getting paid per tag removal.

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