In Ogden, Utah, a partnership between the city and local art college is converting a blighted underpass which has been a frequent target for graffiti attack into an extensive mural and public artwork. 

This effort is making the underpass "feel" safer for pedestrians and joggers and eliminates a source of blight and frustration.  The murals may not eliminate the graffiti, but should significantly decrease the frequency.  Excellent anti-graffiti coatings can be applied to help protect the mural and allow easy graffiti removal when a tagger decides to tag over the mural. 

In Port Angeles, Washington, Richard Schneider, after retiring from the National Park Service, decided to take matters into his own hands.  He has removed over 70 graffiti tags over the past few months.  He is highly motivated to improve this city and community by eliminating graffiti blight.  He attempts to remove graffiti tags as quickly as possible to discourage them from reoccurring.  By removing the tags quickly, the hope is that the taggers move on to areas less visible to the community or stop all together. 

Chris Campagna is a Chicago resident of Historic Pullman neighborhood.  He is also and artist, a father, a advocate for his community, and very creative.  When his garage door was spray painted with graffiti, he decided to turn it into a giant chalkboard for his kids and other kids in the neighborhood to draw on any time.

A traditional rivalry between two high schools in Ogden, Utah in the lead up to the big football game resulted in graffiti vandalism.  Defacing a rival school building is one thing, but the swastikas are another. 

Did this push the rivalry and pranks too far?  Did both school administrations issue statements condemning the graffiti attack?  Did the second school make an offer to help cover some of the costs of graffiti removal?

Nope. The second school district suggested that people should not blame their students, because the graffiti attack was possibly done by "some provokers".  At least we know that the school is doing a good job teaching their students their values...

An elementary school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was the target of a graffiti attack over night.  The extensive black spray paint graffiti covered multiple walls and is expected to cost the School District thousands of dollars to clean up. 


With school budgets stretched thin, the dollars spent to remove graffiti are reallocated from another priorities. Perhaps a vacant building or some other blighted structure is fair game for graffiti, but tagging on schools, or for that matter, churches, parks, and community centers is vandalism.  No matter how good the "street art" is, the costs for removal is real and drain funds away from much needed improvements and maintenance.

Gary Youth Leadership Council and Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson are taking steps to organize motivated volunteers to remove graffiti in Gary, Indiana.  The group of student volunteers, primarily between 12 and 18 year old, has quadrupled in size since it was first formed. This is a highly motivated group hoping to make a positive impact on their community

"We are improving Gary little by little," said Samantha Brooks, aged 14. "And I think  we can really make a comeback."

More at nwitimes.com

Bellville, Illinois - A new proposed ordinance requires property owners to be responsible for removing graffiti on their property within 14 days of notice by county officials with a fine of $75 to $750 a day for each day the graffiti remains.

More at KMOV.com St. Louis

Colorado Springs, Colorado - A rash of vulgar graffiti tagging in Colorado Springs has gottent worse as the weather has gotten warmer. 

"The way we count graffiti is every tag would be $54.11," explained Mark Davis with the Graffiti Removal Team, pointing towards graffiti on a wall. "So if we were to cover that up, sandblast it off is how we would do it, $54.11 and we probably did 50 of them today."

More at KOAA.com  

Chicag, Illinois - Five additional graffiti abatement officers were hired by the City of Chicago's Graffiti Blasters to combat graffiti.  An additional 7,400 tags have been removed since the hiring of the new crew.  Graffiti Blaster was started in 1993 by Mayor Daley to address the graffiti problem.

More at ABC7 News Chicago

Tucson, Arizona - Mario Figueroa is a man on a mission.  This 62-year old spends his time cleaning up graffiti from his Tucson neighborhood.  The City of Tucson spends approximately $750,000 abating graffiti.  

Tucson Officer Stephanie Brown estimates that most of the taggers are 14 or 15 years old.  Spray paint is readily available depite a Tucson city ordinance which prohibits spray paint to minors, 

According to Tucson City Spokesman Michael Graham says, "When you're spending three-quarters of a million dollars to eradicate graffiti, I'd say we have a pretty big problem out there."

 "That's money that, from the general fund, that could have been used to improve city parks, or other city infrastructure. instead, that's going for graffiti abatement."

More at News 4 Tucson