Graffiti Season

It's a reliable harbinger of Spring: downtown has sprouted a new crop of graffiti.

Over the past few weeks I've been snapping photos of the recent graffiti tags on walls, signs and utility boxes. I've been meaning to send them over to Public Works for a clean-up punch list.

But yesterday, I was thrilled to see that some of the graffiti has already been removed! Billy Russo, the City's Director of Public Works, confirmed that his painting crew has been cleaning up on public property as the weather permits (call Public Works at (860) 344-3407 to report graffiti on public property, and don't forget to call the Police and ask them to do a report (860) 347-6941.)

Here's a before and after shot for you, from the corner of Washington & Pearl. The first photo is from February 12th; the second is from the 24th:





















Wesleyan has been on top of the clean up too -- here's William Street from the same dates.











Last year I wrote several articles about graffiti, and I learned that there are lots of ways to remove the tags, especially if you act quickly. There's even a product that blocks graffiti. It's a clear barrier which can be used to cover walls that are frequent targets for vandals, so that graffiti can just be hosed off with water -- it's available at National Paint & Wallpaper on Washington St.

I wish that the folks who run Hamlin Court on College Street had been lucky enough to cover their wall before this happened:



So why is this news? Because cleaning graffiti up quickly is one of the best deterrents to repeat offenses. There may be an increase in the short term, but eventually the perpetrators will get caught, or will tire of having their work erased.

The worst thing we can do is just let it sit there. Here's hoping that quick clean-up is the new trend!

Now you see it, Now you don't!

Anyone recognize the scene in this picture? I was so excited to see this completely blank wall this evening, that I drove back around to take a photo just for you.

Need a hint? Here's what it looked like before.



That's right! After 11 months, the graffiti on Hartford Avenue has been cleaned off. It took the combined actions of the Mayor's office, the Downtown Business District, the Police and the Department of Public Works -- but eventually, the state Department of Transportation came and painted it over.

Perhaps there are cynics among our readers who think it's easy to get rid of graffiti, or that it doesn't matter since it might just get tagged again tomorrow. But -- and you can hum America the Beautiful here -- I'm glad to live in a town where people care enough to stick with the messy, boring work of getting this stuff done. So here's my public thank you to Billy Russo, Mayor Seb, Marie Kalita Leary, Karen Atwell, Police Chief Baldoni and even Mr. Spitola of the D.O.T.

To me, it's a sign that we might just be tenacious to make this whole thing work. We just have to stick with it. There's certainly plenty of other graffiti in town for us to practice on!

New Graffiti at Ravine Park?

A friend writes to say that she noticed what may be some new graffiti at Ravine Park. Some of the spray painting was on trees, some on stone, and some on a drain pipe (pictured right).









Here's the one on the stone (it almost looks like something by Public Works or one of the utility companies):

More Graffiti and a Mugging: New Gang Activity in Middletown?

The following "Public Safety alert" came in on the email today, from Wesleyan's Public Safety office:

Middletown Police have advised Public Safety that on Sunday 3/29/09 at approximately 12:30pm a non-university person was robbed in the area of High St and Huber Ave. According to Middletown Police the victim was approached by an individual who displayed a weapon and demanded money. After being given the victim's wallet the subject fled from the area.

The subject is described as an African-American or Hispanic male, between the ages of 18-21, 5' 7'' tall, weighing approximately 175 lbs. with light facial hair and a lip ring. The subject was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and grey sweat pants with a red oval logo on the side.

Anyone with any information on this incident is asked to call the Middletown Police at 860-344-3200.

Public Safety reminds all community members to report suspicious people or activity to our office at 860-685-2345 or Middletown Police at 860-344-3200.

Yes, you read that correctly: 12:30 p.m. In other words, in the middle of the day. I called Public Safety this afternoon to confirm this, and a friend emailed Public Safety right around the same time. Both inquiries revealed that the information was, in fact, correct. The robbery took place a half hour after noon yesterday, Sunday.

This disquieting event occurs on the heels of a spate of new graffiti in the neighborhood south of campus along High Street, Beach Street, Home Avenue, and McCarthy Park, much of which is being created by individuals referring to themselves as "3D". Several younger acquaintances tell me that "3D" stands for "three desperadoes". A google search for "3D" and "three desperadoes" [and "desperados"] turns up nothing in the way of gangs, so perhaps it is just a local group of miscreants looking for creative new ways to deplete the Public Works and Police Department budgets. One of the targets of the spray paint was the sign for McCarthy Park along High Street (almost directly across from Huber Ave.). Happily Public Works has already cleaned it off, as well as the "tags" at several of the other locations.

When I spoke with the officer at Public Safety, I asked whether they were aware of the new graffiti. He said they were.

This isn't the first time the question of graffiti and possible gang activity has been reported in the Eye. And sadly it probably won't be the last. In addition, we may be hearing more about all this soon from another source: a "Channel 3 Eyewitness News" truck was seen wrapping up a shoot this evening at the Huber-High intersection. I'm waiting on a call back from the Police Department detective bureau for any additional information. If anyone calls, I'll post an update.

Meanwhile, Helen Ubiñas had a story in yesterday's Courant about graffiti. [Correction: Actually the story was dated 11 January 2009]. She found that while graffiti is up, complaints are down. Apparently people are getting used to it. She reports that a favorite target in Hartford is the new "cable boxes". Actually, I think she's referring to the AT&T "U-Verse" boxes, which have been invading Connecticut towns in the past year.

Graffiti again

Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks graffiti is a serious problem. MSNBC just posted this story about a study which showed that graffiti leads to more littering and theft.

There sure is a lot of graffiti in Middletown lately. Some of these "tags" (graffiti signatures) are probably done by bored "kids", and some appear to be the work of organized crime (gangs).

But my real issue with graffiti is that it says to the bad guys: "Hey, we're open for business here in Middletown." It says that this community looks the other way when things go wrong. And that's a slippery slope.

Would you like to stop seeing so much graffiti in Middletown?

There actually IS something you can do.

First: Click on the Tags in Middletown photo collection on Flickr (if you're new to Flickr, you'll have to register -- it's easy and free). The Tags in Middletown group shows photos of local graffiti from the last few months. Click on the word "Map" to see where each photo was taken (geo-tagged).

Second: If you see any graffiti, and it's not already on the Flickr page, then take a digital photo and send it by email to mieyejen@gmail.com. I'll make sure it gets up on Flickr.

This database is a tool to help local police track graffiti tags as they appear, and to be sure that the Public Works department knows when public property has been vandalized and needs clean-up. Both departments are aware of the pictured graffiti on this website -- hopefully, cleanup is coming soon. Last year, there were some graffiti arrests. This year, someone was even caught in the act.

Graffiti is one of those things you get used to, and which seems to multiply if it is not removed quickly. Depressingly, there are about 80 pieces of graffiti on the Tags in Middletown page right now, and as far as I know, only one has been cleaned so far(that was on private property). I don't know about you, but I think we can do a better job.

Grafitti Vandals on the Move

In July, Jen Alexander reported in the Middletown Eye that graffiti has been an ongoing problem in downtown Middletown.  This past weekend the paint spray vandals were roaming in the south end of town.  Marking their territory, these hoodlums sprayed five pointed stars, making it easy to recognize their graffiti.  I got a call on Sunday morning that the back of the Wesleyan Potters building had been sprayed.  On my drive over there, I spotted stars sprayed on new garage doors of a private home on Birdsey Avenue and I noticed that the Wilcox Apartment Building on Pamecha Avenue had also been hit.  When I got home, my husband pointed out that our sidewalk had been sprayed with a star as well during the night.  After talking to several people we have deduced that this graffiti work (clearly ugly, not art) happened after 11:30 p.m. on Saturday.  

I also have to comment that the city promptly cleaned off the graffiti  painted on the McCarthy Park sign in the last month --- and the many layers of graffiti that were making the stop sign in front of my house unreadable, finally got cleaned off in the last couple of days.  Again, as Jen said last month, if you see suspicious activity or spot new graffiti, call the cops.  

Tag You're It - part 2

Graffiti really bothers me.

I think that it tells people who want to commit various crimes that Middletown is Open for Business. I do not think it is a beautification issue. I think it is a public safety issue.

Even if some of the graffiti is just vandalism and is not linked to a larger gang problem, I think that leaving it up shows that we tolerate a high level of uncivil behavior -- and I think that's the wrong message.

Last year the Downtown Business District (DBD) and the Central Business Bureau (CBB) focused a lot of energy on this problem. The police caught some of the people doing the graffiti, they were prosecuted, assigned community service, then we (the DBD) bought the product to clean the graffiti, and supervised the people who were caught as they did their community service cleaning up the tags in the downtown. This took a lot of effort and attention on the part of several people: Marie Kalita Leary (Downtown Manager), Vinnie Amato (for pressing for a process of having those caught do the clean-up), the Downtown Guides (particulary Dennis), and Police Chief Baldoni and the downtown beat cops and lots of others. Eventually, all the graffiti in the DBD and Main Street corridor was removed, unless a building owner refused help.

Of course, eventually, when the warm weather returned, the grafitti came back. But this year, it's not appearing in the areas that are covered by those organizations -- and any graffiti that DOES appear in the DBD is quickly cleaned by the Downtown Guides. Instead, the graffiti runs in a ring around the Main Street area.

At this point, much of the graffiti is on public property -- such as street signs and those electrical boxes (not sure who is really in charge of those.) In early Spring this year, my kids and I compiled a list of all the graffiti we could find, which we gave to the Police, and we gave Public Works and Wesleyan a list of the graffiti on their property -- and both did clean some of it up (for example, under the highway bridges on DeKoven/East Main in the photos from the earlier post on this subject). But now there is a lot more and we seem to have some very persistent taggers. There's no doubt that when it comes to graffiti, when you clean it up, it will get replaced and this escalates until one side gives up -- and unfortunately, we seem to be the ones who have given up. I think part of the problem is that it costs time and money for Public Works to clean up graffiti -- and if you don't check it EVERY DAY then the clean-up is not as effective as it might be. Also, I know the police have done various stake-outs and other methods to try to catch more of the perpetrators, but as you can imagine, it's a little random. In cases of continued re-tagging, like the electrical box across from the Synagogue, I wonder if a camera might be useful. So, it's important for citizens to be advocating for graffiti clean-up and to ask the Mayor to support Public Works and the Police in making this a priority.

I'd welcome any suggestions that anyone has about how to tackle this problem.

As for the few private property owners who have graffiti on their buildings, like the gas station on South Main shown in the last post, anyone reading this is welcome to stop by those businesses and ask them to please paint over the graffiti -- it's been there a long time. And if they haven't reported to the police that they have been the victim of vandalism, then they should do that -- but it's time to move ahead and clean up the mess.

(Photos: Pearse Pinch)

Tag you're it

We've got a graffiti problem in Middletown, and it isn't getting better.

Walk a block in any direction from Main Street and you're bound to spot a "tag." The city's procedure is for citizens who see graffiti is to call and report it to the police department so it will be recorded, and then to call the Public Works departments (sometimes repeatedly) so that they will remove it.

Middletown is obviously making some effort to control the problem. Witness paint overs on highway substructure on DeKoven Dr./East Main.

But if the quantity and frequency of the tagging is any indication, the city may not be pursuing the problem agressively.

If the experience of other cities is of any value, what begins as a nuisance blossoms into a plague. In addition, some public safety officials have denied that there is any gang connection to the graffiti. My own gut tells me that when I see "Blood" scrawled on an abandoned truck trailer, I should at least be suspicious that the notorious gang of the same name is making inroads to a city where narcotics are also a problem.

While eradicating graffiti is nearly impossible, other cities have had some success in stemming the problem using a variety of techniques, including:

- writing a graffiti ordinance (I can't find one in Middletown's code)
- apprehending taggers and prosecuting
- making taggers and their parents financially responsible for cleanup
- getting rid of tags immediately though cleaning or paintovers
- setting up a graffiti reporting line
- enlist business owners in combating the problem
- hold property owners responsible for cleaning graffiti on their premises

As one anti-graffiti website says, the difference between art and vandalism is permission. And there is no tagger in Middletown who is making any aesthetic advances.

All the photos here were taken within one hour on a morning walk around the city. Some of the identical tags can be seen at several locations. What's published here is less than half of what I saw and photographed.