What I Witnessed Proves Just How Bad the Graffiti Problem in Portland is

Portland has a graffiti problem. It seems any surface that can be tagged in Portland has been. After what I witnessed, I think we're helpless to do anything about it.

This building at 15 Monument Square has long been a target of taggers. It's been there for over a century and appears to have had part of it removed at some point leaving a flat brick surface that taggers view as their canvas.

We have a clear view of that brick wall from our studio window on the third floor of One City Center. Earlier this week I watched as the wall was being power washed to remove all the tags that had defaced their private property. It took quite some time to clean it off but it worked.

Then, the very next morning when the sun came up, I saw this out our studio window.

Less than 24 hours after the graffiti was removed, someone tagged it again. Seriously?

I don't understand how people that do this cannot respect private property. If you want to display art in public places, there are places in Portland to do that legally. What this person has done has completely wasted the money that the owners of this building spent to remove the vandalism.

The sad part is there's no good way to police this sort of thing. So it likely will never end and, in my opinion, adds nothing to the character of the city. It instead detracts from it.

Maybe the owners could spend a few hundred bucks for a Nest security cam with floodlights so that it lights the area whenever someone approaches the wall and starts recording. Then there's evidence that can be submitted to the police who might be able to find the tagger and the owners of the building can press charges.