A growing problem in Charlotte is graffiti. The City of Charlotte is saying that graffiti has been going up 25% each year- for the past four years. The most recent graffiti attack was the back of a Michael's craft store in the Park Road Shopping Center. (Photo R) The city is paying close attention to the graffiti because a lot of times the graffiti is gang related and contains messages.
According to WCNC, Graffiti Education Coordinator, Michael Sullivan, writes down every piece of graffiti in town and stores pictures of the graffiti on a growing stack of computer disks. Sullivan is looking for the first signs of gang activity and then passes his information on to police. “They are sending messages out about what they may be doing. Messages of activity that may be coming up and just to tell other groups that they may be operating in the area,” Sullivan said.
Not all graffiti is gang related. Sometimes buildings are spray painted or tagged by groups who are just trying to prove they can do it. It costs businesses a fortune to clean it up since property owners are responsible for taking care of graffiti themselves. The rule is they have seven days to do it. The most often tagged parts of town are the two to three mile radius around Eastland Mall and South Boulevard from Scaleybark to Arrowood roads. Source: WCNC