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Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Graffiti

Ah, the familiar feel of East Oakland once again rears up to ruin my impromptu three day weekend. The connecting ramp between freeways gets melted by an exploding tanker truck early Sunday morning, causing an untold number of delays for all of the foreseeable future. Then, what to my wandering eyes did appear, rounding the bend toward my shop this morning? Certainly not Santa’s reindeer; but instead, the colorful ambience of graffiti covering my shop front, sprayed there by young morons with nothing better to do than destruction. I always think ‘oh man, if only I had been here to catch them’; but I know it is not always a good thing to get one’s wish granted, because then I would be in prison.

While I spent my first two and a half hours cleaning the black spray paint off my metal door and metal window cover, many of my neighbors came by to express their sympathy. We all thought we had the graffiti problem licked, which is why most of us redid our homes and storefronts. As my neighbor across the street said, there’s probably a new bunch of the old neighborhood thugs paroled recently. This usually means a new bout of break-ins and worse. I have it easy. My neighbors are still here at night when things have been getting real wild lately. A few have reported these characters hanging out in front of their houses, and the Oakland police, morale lower than their San Francisco brethren, have all but ignored them. The police don’t do themselves any favors ignoring this stuff, cause some of the neighbors are past the upset stage, and heading into wild west mode. Just thought I’d add a little local flavor to the blog today. :)

4 comments:

Stacia said...

That sucks, what a lousy thing to come home to.

I've never understood the appeal of graffiti. Why spend money to ruin stuff when you can ruin stuff for free and spend your money on drugs? (Just joking of course! Ha ha! I would never do drugs, not me!) :-)

BernardL said...

It's the same appeal as when these enlightened individuals walk by a brand new car in the parking lot somewhere, and key it along the side just for spite. At least it's by auto shop, and not my house. My neighbors near my shop aren't so lucky. I sent out digital pictures along with a report to the city council woman and the police. Drugs are definitely a factor, and I know you have never tried those things... me either. :)

Jordan Summers said...

I watched taggers one time in L.A. I had no idea that if they were staring at you hard that meant they were ready to shoot you. They didn't, but they could have. I circled my apt four times to make sure I hadn't been followed before I parked. :(

BernardL said...

They're mean, vicious, little punks, Jordan, and they've convinced themselves they have nothing to lose. Inside, they're missing one of the most important ingredients for human advancement: imagination. If you can't imagine a better life, living one is almost impossible.