Painting Over Vandalism is Also Vandalism

The SF Examiner hips us to the urban art movement developing in McLaren Park:

When 23-year-old Aaron Perry-Zucker first moved to the Excelsior neighborhood last summer, he noticed the large amount of graffiti covering signs and benches in John McLaren Park that differed from the green space near his former Berkeley home. […]

Around Thanksgiving of last year, Perry-Zucker — a graphic designer by trade — decided to paint over the tags himself. Normally The City uses muted brown or standard grey to cover up graffiti, but Perry-Zucker wanted to use more attractive colors.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for ORFN tags on park benches, but if you're one to complain about such matters, its seems Aaron's course of action is a good one.  How does the the City feel about it?

The public is not allowed to paint over city property at will, no matter how bright and colorful the paint,” said Recreation and Park Department spokesman Elton Pon.

Pon encouraged all residents to report graffiti using The City’s free tip line, 311.

Nice.

(link

Comments (2)

Jesus Christ. If the city wants the furniture painted beige so badly, why don’t they go do it themselves instead of bothering someone who’s actually going out and helping.

As Ryan Thayer says in the article, “Color is always better than concrete…” I’ll add that it’s probably better than an unskillfully tagged bench, too…