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.

Brooklyn, New York - Based on the lack of complaints from local residents, the positive message of a rash of "Believe in Love" graffiti tags seems to have won some over. Does the message matter?  How about a positive message tagged over a well established mural?  How about on your building?

More at  NYDailyNews.com including photos.

Summary by Clean City Graffiti Watch

The hiker’s creed, “Take only pictures, leave nothing but footprints” has been turned upside down in recent months as a rash of graffiti vandalism has broken out in Joshua Tree National Park.   Millions of annual visitors have respected the natural beauty of the park.  The graffiti of the vandals has forced park rangers to close over 300 arces of the National Park including the highly popular, Rattlesnake Canyon, with its large granite outcroppings and natural spring pools.

"People are appalled and people are wondering how it could happen here, in a national park," said Pat Pilcher, a ranger at Joshua Tree.

According to park officials, defacing National Park property carries a maximum sentence of 6 months in prison and a $5,000
fine.

Park officials are assessing strategies to remove the graffiti without doing more harm.  Some of the graffiti may have damaged ancient Native American petroglyphs.

"People are protective of their parks," said, Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman for the National Park Service, "It makes it all the more shocking that somebody would defile our heritage."

More detail at LA Times.