Graffiti is on the rise in Portland.
Public agencies report increased incidences of graffiti throughout the city, and clean-up efforts are piping increased amounts of cash towards removing it. Portland graffiti has a rich life on Instagram, the #portlandgraffiti hashtag has upwards of 78,000 posts, and Portland graffiti artists abound. Graffiti runs the gamut from artful tags to murals to bathroom stall scribblings.
Complaints about graffiti, while proportionately low, are on the rise, too.
Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is responsible for state and interstate highways, which are more prevalent in West Portland than elsewhere in the city. People submitted 98 graffiti complaints statewide through Ask ODOT in 2020, with 73 in West Portland.
Graffiti complaints rose to 207 statewide in 2021, and the majority — 157 — were in West Portland.
To date, people submitted 182 complaints statewide in 2022, with 143 on the west side.
Graffiti, in general, is a debated subject, both generally and in Reddit forums about Portland, in which residents alternately malign tagging, support street art and see graffiti as a sign of collapse. It’s a debate extending far beyond Portland and one integral to the nature of graffiti in the first place.
Public agencies in Oregon, however, take the basic stance that graffiti in public spaces is a serious problem and that authorities should remove graffiti.
In an interview with KGW in July 2021, Don Hamilton, spokesperson for ODOT, said graffiti was a “very serious” issue, noting “we want to attack it as best we can.”
At the time, ODOT recently hired a contractor to help them remove graffiti lining Portland’s freeways. ODOT hired Rose City Environmental to clean stretches of Interstate 5, Interstate 205 and Interstate 405 (graffiti was prevalent along Interstate 84, but the funds weren’t available to clean it). ODOT anticipated the work to cost $300,000.
Even so, the likelihood of more graffiti replacing what was just removed seemed high.
“It’s not unusual that we’ll get graffiti taken care of, and covered up, and handled when we’ll see it come back within days,” Hamilton said during the interview. "That's just an indication of how bad the problem is." Since then, ODOT continues to spend tens of thousands a month painting over graffiti.
So far in 2022, clean-up along freeways in Portland has already cost ODOT nearly $100,000. In 2021, ODOT spent nearly $235,000 painting over graffiti, plus the estimated $300,000 in clean up paid to River City Environmental.
This year ODOT entered into a $500,000 contract with Portland Graffiti Removal to address freeway graffiti in the city. Additionally, ODOT operates one to two crews five days a week. Outside Portland, according to ODOT, the prevalence of graffiti drops off dramatically.
During the pandemic, graffiti increased in the city, according to officials, owing to both protests and COVID-19.
For many, graffiti is a problem. KGW disparaged graffiti in the 2021 video. “It’s an eyesore, really,” Mike Benner, KGW reporter, said in the video.
In a similar vein, Hamilton views graffiti as vandalism.
“It’s very disappointing when we do see the sort of desecration of these public areas,” Hamilton said in 2021.
It’s not just state officials and agencies who have a problem with increased street art.
In May, Mayor Ted Wheeler renewed an emergency declaration primarily addressing homelessness and trash in an effort to “revitalize” Portland, including graffiti in the threats to “livability.” Proclaiming that “a state of emergency exists” throughout the city, the order aims to “remedy the threats to personal health and public property caused by trash, graffiti, abandoned vehicles and structures, and other unsafe and unsanitary conditions.”
Since 2020, Hamilton said, graffiti increased in some areas of the city. According to Hamilton, it’s still commonplace for crews to paint over graffiti on an underpass or wall only to have it re-painted within days. Still, in some places, ODOT’s recent push to eliminate graffiti has led to improvements, Hamilton said.
The conversation around city graffiti was revived Aug. 22 when professional skateboarder Emile Laurent, 22, turned himself in to police. Laurent faces six counts of first-degree criminal mischief, 19 counts of second-degree criminal mischief and roughly $20,000 in fines for property damage.
The charges stem from four years of tagging in which the tag “TENDO,” which investigators say is Laurent’s tag, was found on private and public property throughout the city.
A press release from the Multnomah District Attorney notes the Central Precinct Neighborhood Response team is focusing on “prolific and impactful taggers in a focused effort to address an increase in vandalism within the City of Portland.” According to the release, the effort was spurred by complaints from business stakeholders and community members.
The neighborhood response team responded to crime data indicating a small number of people make up a significant share of low-level crimes in Multnomah County, according to the press release. The data suggests 13% of offenders account for 41% of instances of low-level offenses like vandalism, car theft and robbery.
In response, the unit plans to focus on what it calls “high-volume system users.”
Still, it seems graffiti is something public agencies will have a hard time preventing, even as they pour millions into cleaning it up. The Oregon Legislature recently allocated $2 million for litter and graffiti removal in Portland. According to Hamilton, ODOT began spending those funds in February 2022 and funding will run through June 2023, or 17 months, amounting to a cost of roughly $117,650 a month on graffiti.
“The repetitive cycle is very frustrating,” said Hamilton. “ODOT is not able to address the factors that motivate those who produce graffiti or to accurately understand deterrence. We can address infrastructure tools and what we feel works best.”
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