Unattended graffiti a growing problem

10:05 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 21, 2004

By Vicente Arenas / 11 News

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If Houstonians think they've been noticing more graffiti in their neighborhood recently, it's probably not their imagination. But, it's not that more gang members are "tagging" or spray painting, but that less is being done to get rid of it.

Many people who live in Lindale Park work hard to keep their bungalows beautiful and lawns looking great. Lately, they’ve seen a lot of new paint, but not the kind they want.

Virginia Duke is a neighborhood resident. “We have a nice neighborhood over here and if you turn down this street, here you have graffiti. And if you’re looking for a home, this is not what you wanna see when you’re driving into the neighborhood.”

Ed Reyes agrees. “It’s a long effort. You report it and time goes on and you get frustrated because you don’t think anything is happening.”

Not even fences are keeping taggers away. What’s worse, people in the neighborhood say, they recently learned a city program that had workers painting over the eyesores is gone.

Ed Reyes points to a graffiti covered building and says, “If that program was in effect, something like this building might have been taken care of a long time ago.”

For now Lindale Park and other Houston neighborhoods are on their own.

Patricia Harrington with the Mayor's anti-gang office promises all is not lost. “The contract expired probably sometime in mid-April and we started on the legal part, having to draft the new contract. And they had been working on that and then it had to go to the county, so they can look at it as well and just work out any details.”

She hopes the city will have a new cleanup contract before council in about a month.