(BY MATT GARBER) Recently, the Fairview section of town was hit by a rash of graffiti. Sometime during the night, according to neighbors, vandals struck a number of Fairview’s local businesses. Some of the graffiti had what appeared to be gang-style markings. Other buildings near downtown were nailed sometime in the past month or so also.
Graffiti is a scourge on a community. It demonstrates disdain for others’ property, it can symbolize gang activity (though not always – according to police and local officials, some markings may be done by kids; others may be “wannabes” as opposed to connected with a real gang.) It’s also a difficult crime to catch and prosecute. One of the best ways to battle it is for property owners, city staff (for public areas), and/or volunteers to continue to paint over the “tagged” areas quickly. It can be a battle of endurance — and the citizens and property owners in Altoona must win.
I have to give a lot of credit to some business owners in Fairview who moved quickly to paint over (or grind off) the vandalism.
Officials at City Hall can provide property owners with information on materials to remove graffiti. City Council has discussed the idea of a volunteer team to combat this problem. Is anyone interested in this?
Have you encountered this in your neighborhood? How has it been handled? Do you have any other ideas?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Your ignorance shows when using blanket statements like “Graffiti is a scourge on a community”. Vandalism of any variety is an eyesore and worth every bit of the disdain you show for it. However, the term “graffiti” is no longer simply applied to an act of vandalism as it has migrated into a very serious and accepted artform when applied to the proper venues. I have been a graffiti artist for 27 years and don’t intend to stop painting anytime soon. Your haphazard use of the word in reference to the vandalism that these kids are doing is not only an insult to those who have worked to develop their skills, but a detractor to future business for myself and others.
That’s really a headache problem.
In my hometown, graffiti is everywhere, but nobody will handle it, except the property owner, and most of the time, the owner has no way to prevent such problems happen again.
Volunteer to combat the problem, impossible!
who says its a problem not all ppl see it as vandalism pal
its a art as long as its done right!
To those people who dont know a thingGraffiti….. Graffiti is not all gang related…. when you see things like words and things with like 3 letters, THEY ARE CREWS….. THEY ARE NOT GANGS AND THOSE WHO THINK THEY ARE ARE COMPLETE FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!! I guess you should give places for these CREWS to draw at…. Why dont you worrie about getting the drug rehabs and drug dealers out of altoona before you worrie about a some CREWS of kids drawing on stuff. If there is no cuss words all i can say is HAVE AT IT….. PAINT IT UP ALL YOU CREWS. Dont hit cars and houses but have fun and have at it. I would sooner see that than a kid out drinking or doing drugs… ART IS A FORM OF LIFE SO LIVE YOUR LIFE AND DON’T LET ANYONE TAKE YOUR DREAM AWAY…….
I noticed some face art on the big pilon that holds the signs going into town from the Logan Town Center. Why hasn’t Altoona cleaned that up. I don’t know who it is or what it means, but does it really belong there? I have leaved here all my life and this art is getting worse and unwanted. Clean up time!
way to stick it too um gone… you know what goes down…
i don’t really understand why people are so up in arms about such a minor incident to be honest. Perhaps if the city of Altoona did something better with their funds than put Sesame Street lightpoles in the ever dying downtown they wouldn’t have these kids making a mess with otherwise idle hands. It amuses me to no end that the first thing that comes to mind is “Gang” whenever someone scribbles on a wall in this place. This city’s only “gang problem” is the fear campaign being run by the city council and the ever-aging population it caters to. If it weren’t for the rehab programs that Altoona prostituted itself to a few years back, there wouldn’t be the very few actual gang members in the town that there are now.
Thanks to the city council sensationalizing these few misguided individuals, the schools made unnecessary rules, the cops got more funding(imagine that) and the kids became more aware of the things going on outside this place that would piss off their parents. Now you have little 12-15 year olds running around town scribbling gang signs all over the place and not even knowing what they mean.
Since I moved here (from an ACTUAL city) in 1991, I have seen numerous businesses that were directed toward the youth of this area forced out of business or outright shut down by the city. has anyone ever stopped to think that if there were something constructive for the young people in Altoona to do that they might actually find their better way into functioning society instead of growing up to be the troublemakers their parent became? In all of my travels I have never seen a town like Altoona. A city-sized population only for the amount of elderly and special programs recipients is not city by any other means. Welfare here is not only passed on from family to family, but the “city” itself is in constant pursuit of federal or state assistance.
It is shameful that a society that doesn’t develop its youth as a collective curses these same youth when they go out to find something to do with themselves.
You brought it on yourselves, Altoona. Its up to you to either fix it or deal with what it promises to become.
@ Gone.
You failed to take notice that the writer above wasn’t trash talking graffiti as an art at all. In the opening, he’s specifically talking about vandalism against people’s businesses: not all graffiti.
You wouldn’t like to wake up to see the side of your house decorated with some unwanted picture or design on it, would you? That’s vandalism.
Like you said and were 100% correct about: “WHEN APPLIED TO PROPER VENUES” graffiti is good and is a widely accepted form of art, but it’s another story when it destroys somebody’s business.
agreed, but it doesn’t change the second point. Not that it will hinder all of the kids out there making a mess, but our local government misdirects its finances in revolting ways. Its a mentality that seems to be held in more places than the people elected to manage our finances too. It is pretty sad when kids are considered criminals and miscreants prior to their becoming interested in anything of the sort. have you checked the local school policy books? It’s ridiculous. There is precious little a kid can do to express him/herself without being penalized for it somehow. It’s astonishing to think that a child, not matter what their scholastic performance, can be sent home for wearing a certain shirt or coloring their hair.
If central PA would take a more positive stance toward its youth, maybe the youth wouldn’t look elsewhere for inspiration. I suggest we fire the “status quo” of local politics by way of voting in more forward thinking people. These kids aren’t criminals out of the womb. They can be inspired and encouraged like any other young mind. I do my best to do my part as they stop by the wall that I paint during the sunnier seasons of the year and a few of them may have learned a thing or two, but their are so many other avenues that can be opened both economically and culturally if the people of Altoona would stand up and make it happen.
please pardon the multiple typos, misspellings and grammatical errors in the above statement. I can’t go back and edit them out. I think my point has been made though.