Graffiti on Portland’s highways is a growing problem

[ZLoth]

From KPTV Portland Oregon:

Graffiti on Portland's highways is a growing problem

After the Oregon Department of Transportation said several months ago they'd run out of funding to address graffiti off state roadways, it has started to cover important signage.

ODOT spokesperson Don Hamilton said while they're doing everything that they can to tackle the problem, it's not that easy.

"We struggle with these graffiti issues all the time every day, and people can't really get the good directions that they need to get on the roads," Hamilton said.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[SectorZ]

Not just Portland. The entire I-93 corridor from Braintree MA to Manchester NH looks like complete ass now. It's actually worse on the NH side. I was hoping someone would tag mile-based exit numbers over the current ones to finally get their governor to do something about it.

[jeffandnicole]

Since most people tag stuff with their 'signature', law enforcement could investigate the tags, associate them with who is doing it, and arrest them.  Since this is generally considered petty stuff, most of it isn't investigated.

That said...There was one case near me where the underpass for a railroad was repeatedly tagged, with the profane messages easily visible to a neighborhood...one that I grew up in.  The township painted the underpass to cover it up, added cameras, and actually caught and arrested some people graffiting the bridge.  They were two people from nearby towns that weren't kids, but in their mid 30s.

[triplemultiplex]

They were two people from nearby towns that weren't kids, but in their mid 30s.

Genuinely surprising.
Anyone over 20 still doing graffiti is a failed adult.

[pderocco]

I dunno. When I see really big graffiti, I wonder if teenagers could afford those gallons of paint.

[Rothman]

I dunno. When I see really big graffiti, I wonder if teenagers could afford those gallons of paint.

Think about what kind of teenagers could afford such and it should make you question the assumptions you make about what kind of kid is a graffiti artist...

[triplemultiplex]

Don't cost nothing to steal paint.  That's why they've been keeping spray paint 'caged' at urban hardware stores for decades.

[Rothman]

Don't cost nothing to steal paint.  That's why they've been keeping spray paint 'caged' at urban hardware stores for decades.

So...do the cages not work, then?

[SectorZ]

I dunno. When I see really big graffiti, I wonder if teenagers could afford those gallons of paint.

Think about what kind of teenagers could afford such and it should make you question the assumptions you make about what kind of kid is a graffiti artist...

I went to school with a kid that was a tagger. He had no pot to piss in but somehow always had money for spray paint.

[Scott5114]

"There's big expenses when we have to replace those big ole' green freeways signs," [ODOT spokesperson Don] Hamilton said. "Those are not cheap."

Is this the closest we've gotten to a DOT rep actually saying "BGS" out loud?

[Amaury]

I feel like the same could be said for the Seattle area. Many signs on I-5 and I-90 have had vandalism for a while, and I think even more happened in 2020 following certain events. None of them have been cleaned or repaired yet. I've seen some in the Spokane area, and like two in my county and one in adjacent Grant County, but not to the extent as the ones in the Seattle area. 99% of the sign vandalism/graffitti is definitely over there. I don't know what the anti-vandalism/graffiti funding for WSDOT is like, though, compared to what's been said in this article for ODOT.

[Rothman]

One issue with funding of graffiti removal is that some DOTs or even States in general separate capital project fuding from routine maintenance funding.  So, if a State solely depends on the latter and funds dry up, graffiti removal can be seen as a lower priority.

At least in NY, the solution has been for maintenance funding to pilfer capital project funding either through having such tasks completed through a capital project contract or by an outright transfer of funding from capital to maintenance.

(personal opinion emphasized)

[mgk920]

Was anyone around to set these taggers straight when they were younger, or was that too (inset type of 'ist' disrespect here)?

Mike