Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Old White Castle Lot Goes From Trash Problem To Graffiti Problem...

Contributed photo, blog post by John Hoff

There used to be big piles of trash in the vacant lot nat 718 West Broadway, which old Northsiders recall as the former White Castle location. This blog griped about the trash, lots of citizens called 311 and sent photos, and finally the trash problem was taken care of.

Now there's a new problem with the vacant lot...


Graffiti.

These cartoony letters don't look like North Minneapolis gang graffiti but rather tagger wannabes from the suburbs.

311 has been notified. How long until the problem is remedied? And then reappears? And then gets remedied again?

But here's how I look at it: after you mow the grass, the grass grows back. That DOES NOT mean you didn't do a good job mowing, or that you should give up mowing, or even that you should grow frustrated. Rejoice, for you have purpose and productive work.

Then again...

It is inevitable that one of these dark nights a car full of North Minneapolis neighborhood revitalizers will run into a car full of taggers from the suburbs, caught in the very act.

And when that happens, it will be a bad day to be a tagger from the suburbs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you threatening violence? I highly doubt that anyone from the suburb is driving into the hood to spraypaint. That's just STOOPID!

Jeff Skrenes said...

Paul Zee and the Hesh Crew tagged a whole bunch of light poles on Washington south of Broadway. I haven't called it in to 311 yet, but noticed it when I was walking around last weekend. Most likely the Irving Inquisition and/or Hillside Chronicles will beat the city to the punch anyway.

And thanks for blogging about this John. I drive past the graffiti most every day and haven't got around to addressing it myself.