I was given a delightful compliment a couple of days ago. For the first time in weeks, there were no major parades or street fairs scheduled on Saturday. With a "free" morning on my calendar, I volunteered to help at the Hawthorne Business Association's Graffiti Cleanup, organized in partnership with the Office of Neighborhood Involvement's Graffiti Abatement Program. After hearing the instructions from ONI's Marcia Dennis and as the group broke up into teams assigned to 10-block sections of the district, a young woman came over and gave me a hug.

"Thank you for coming!", she said. "With any other politician, I'd assume you were just here for a PR event, but with you, I know you're here to do the work."

Photograph by Louie Berry

For the record, that goop that appears to be paint dripping from my roller onto the sidewalk, was there before we started. The only mess I made has now dried onto my painter's pants as a permanent reminder of the event.

I learned a lot about graffiti removal and abatement from Marcia and my work partner, Louie. He has virtually eradicated graffiti in his neighborhood, Madison South, by persistently removing it as soon as it goes up. I'd already learned that as the most effective action, in the presentation at a Hollywood Boosters lunch earlier this year by Goodbye Graffiti, a professional removal company. New York City almost eliminated graffiti on subway trains, by systematically cleaning them then removing cars from service as soon as they were re-tagged.

There was a surprising amount of vandalism on Hawthorne. Once I started looking for it, I noticed tags and/or stickers on almost every traffic sign, every utility pole, every newspaper box, and every bus shelter/bench. Most of it is not spray paint - it's done with markers and stickers. The stickers annoyed me the most. Paint and marker comes off relatively easily with the solvents the graffiti removal teams use (products which may be purchased at local stores). Stickers, often embellished with marker pens, take a long time to scrape off - and almost no time to slap on. I couldn't even feel impressed at the art and effort, with stickers.

Some things I learned:

* Cleaning the front of city signs is illegal. Apparently removing the tags also removes the reflective coating, so only city staff are allowed to attend to the front of signs. Volunteers may clean the back and poles, however.

* TriMet is responsible for bus shelters. And tagging on TriMet property is an automatic felony. With lack of funds, also seen in City graffiti-abatement programs which have been cut in recent years, I'm told TriMet sometimes waits and replaces the entire shelter or bench, rather than removing each tag as it goes up. Other times, TriMet is very prompt. Many of the tags on the shelters were scratched into the windows, i.e. not cleanable, but there were some on benches that were easily removed, scraped off with persistence, or painted over.

* Newspaper and advertising boxes are considered private property, and the vendors are supposed to keep them clean. Few do, and the City doesn't have staff to enforce the rules. I'm interested in re-evaluating all the regulations and fees for street boxes. As sidewalks become busier, we need to review the people-habitat and make sure it is safe, uncluttered, and visually appealing.

* Research shows that providing legal places for "graffiti art" tends to increase, rather than reduce, tagging on other sites near the graffiti wall. The abatement experts recommend we should stop calling them "graffiti artists". The difference between art and graffiti is PERMISSION. But even when artists have permission, installing graffiti art increases tagging nearby.

* Although stapling papers to utility poles is illegal, don't waste your time peeling them off. There are layers on layers on layers. The City Ombudsman, Michael Mills, reviewed this issue on page 2 of the 2007 Ombudsman's Survey Report (pdf) posted on the City Auditor's section of PortlandOnLine. Enforcement was suspended after his investigation, due to concerns about complaints of content-based removal. However, there are volunteers who actively remove posters and signs from utility poles. And, Marcia Dennis tells me that PGE, Pacificorp and Qwest have all signed on to prosecute offenders should anyone be arrested in the act of attaching posters or signs to their poles. When Marcia receives information about a sign or poster showing up in quantity on those poles, she sends a letter to inform the responsible company of the laws that apply and that they have violated, in hopes of educating them and gaining their cooperation in getting the signs removed.

* When painting over tags, make a neat line around the pole, or a regular shape on a wall or fence. The more orderly the area looks when you're done, the less likely it will be tagged again.

* Removing graffiti is hard work, especially since I am out of practice with my favorite volunteer task, pulling ivy. I would like to see people convicted of placing graffiti required to work on its removal - particularly those horrible stickers. I'm told that happens sometimes.

It took only a few hours to clean several blocks on both sides of the street, though. If all the nearby businesses and residents in every neighborhood commercial area took ownership of their streetscape and removed the tags immediately, the problem would be easier to eradicate than invasive weeds in the forests. If elected, I will encourage Business Associations and Neighborhood Associations to partner to recruit/appoint Graffiti Abatement committees, like many have Block Watches, parks volunteers, Neighborhood Emergency Teams, etc. I will happily volunteer to help, often.

Addendum 11:05 am: Thanks to Marcia Dennis for providing additional information after seeing the first draft of this post, and for sending the photo she took, below. I was so intent on my task, I didn't notice she took it.

Photograph by Marcia Dennis

Note: Posting of photographs taken during the volunteer event should not be taken to imply endorsement of me or my campaign by photographers, people in the images, or the event sponsors. I'm sure if other candidates had shown up, they too would have been provided with courtesies and a warm welcome.