Far from gone: Graffiti in Hamline-Midway
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Spraying graffiti on your own garage is not how most people would respond to tagging, but that’s just what Becky Johnson of Hamline-Midway did. On “the wall of illiteracy,” as she and her sons named it, they sprayed over previous vandals’ graffiti with a message that she recalls as something like, “’Please don’t tag us unless you want to be shamed.”It worked. Their family had six to eight months of a graffiti-free garage, not including their warning. Then, right as Johnson fell ill, the city insisted either she remove her own spray-paint from her garage or give them permission to do so. Within a week of the city painting over her message, fresh tags were back.Pam McCreary of the Saint Paul Police Department said she sees recent graffiti as being a product of gangs from across the country growing in Twin Cities neighborhoods. McCreary has been with SPPD’s crime prevention department for nearly 12 years. Continue Reading
