Editor’s Note: Diane is a longtime B-W homeowner, a graduate of Beaumont and Grant, and a former BWNA board member and newsletter co-editor with husband Baer.
APATHY is hurting our neighborhood. Case in point: the unabated spread of graffiti.
I can’t be the only one concerned about increased graffiti in Beaumont Wilshire neighborhood, and yet I continue to hear the typical apathetic responses: “I don’t like seeing graffiti, but at least it’s not in our neighborhood” or “nothing can be done about it anyway.”
News Flash: Graffiti is now everywhere in Portland, including our neighborhood!
Graffiti is property damage (private and public), and it is a crime. Graffiti crime is not victimless, and small crimes lead to bigger, more-dangerous crimes.
Another News Flash: Not all graffiti is gang-related. Studies have shown that some graffiti is done by teenagers for various reasons, such as lack of parental guidance, isolation, an absent moral compass, or just wanting attention (even negative attention).
Let’s Be Clear: Graffiti is not acceptable “street art.” Moreover, property owners are required by law to remove it in a timely way at their cost. When we as the public are apathetic, we let someone else mark, deface, and “own” our visible spaces.
City officials give many excuses for not removing the increasing graffiti, e.g., “lack of resources” or “not in the budget.” In the past our neighborhood organized work parties of volunteers to abate it. Seems we’re back to doing the cleanup ourselves, because no one else is coming to make our neighborhood clean and livable. Speaking of which, Beaumont Hardware generously stepped up to donate a gallon of “telephone pole brown” paint, which I then used to cover over yellow graffiti on three poles on Skidmore Street.
So how about it, neighbors? How about it, BWNA? Get some graffiti removal supplies and cover-up paint, and let’s all get to work!
Thank you.
P.S. Picking up trash on daily walks helps, too.