School Zone Santa .Com

7/3/09
IS THIS A GOOD IDEA?

On the corner of Waratah st and Arcacia rd in Kirrawee is a shop wall which has been in the past "tagged" many times by vandals.

Now this wall has been painted, but in the graffiti style, a landscape mural would I suppose be acceptable, but to cover the wall with the same sort of thing that's sprayed on train carriages is wrong.

How much time and paint was used to do this wall?

Don't get me wrong it takes talent to do the graphics, but why at the same time couldn't they spare half a can of paint and spray over the tags on the bit of fence on the left as this colour bond fence belongs to the same property?

Graffiti vandals that go around in the dead of night are selfish and don't care about the damage they do.

For the people that painted this "mural" not to repaint that bit of fence at the same time, seems a bit uncaring, and dare I say it selfish.

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Driving North over the Tom Uglys, for months there has been graffiti on the steelwork on the bridge in a number of places.

Its well known the idea is to paint over graffiti straight away, so that the vandalism doesn't get exposure.

THIS IS FROM THE NSW GOV. GRAFFITI WEBSITE www.graffiti.nsw.gov.au

Remove graffiti promptly

The most effective way to prevent graffiti vandalism is to remove graffiti promptly (preferably within 24 to 48 hours) to show that you care about the property. This will discourage the graffiti vandal because it doesn’t give them the recognition they are looking for. For advice on removing graffiti, refer to the Removing graffiti web page.

They are still painting the bridge (a year after they were to have it finished) why wouldn't someone take a brush or roller and repaint the graffiti ed areas?

How long would it take, have they no pride in the work they've done?

Does it needs an upper house committee to work out who does it.
I took the photo by parking in the lane that was closed for the painters on cherry pickers painting upper steel work.

I asked a safety vested man carrying a stop sign who came over to see why I'd dared to stop there, why no one had overpainted the graffiti and he said it had been discussed but you know, it's the RTA.
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UPDATE 14 July 08
Last week I had a letter in The Leader about the graffiti on the bridge but it's still there, maybe the painters can't read.

The graffiti on the bridge is still there so I hit the contact button on the RTA website.

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UPDATE FRIDAY 6/02/09
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Contact the RTA
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Feedback
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These are your responses:

Message Type
Suggestion
Subject
Road/bridge infrastructure maintenance
Message

Dear sir/madam, Graffiti is back in the news again, and it's becoming an increasing problem. One way to discourage the vandals is to remove or paint over graffiti as soon as possible. The Tom Uglies Bridge has be going through a repaint and other maintenance and was spraycanned last February 08,and even though painters were still working on cherry pickers painting, no one thought to get a half can of paint and cover the damage. I thought that if anyone there had a bit of pride in their work it would've been fixed the day after the attack. It's still there twelve months later for all to see. Why? Could you please pass this onto someone who can see to it.. A photo of one section of damage can be seen in the "Graffiti" category of www.schoolzonesanta.com." thank you. Regards Hans Stephens.

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Update: 8/3/09

Nothing back from the RTA on my email about the graffiti on Tom Uglys Bridge, and "someone" wearing a fluro safety vest last Sunday morning has covered the offending graffiti with what looks like "mid grey" aerosol paint, bought at Supa Cheap Auto

That'll do till the RTA get around to using the right shade.

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UPDATE: 11/3/09 An email came in today from the RTA
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Ref: GE09/0826
Dear Hans
I refer to your email concerning graffiti on Tom Uglys Bridge.
The graffiti in question has been attended to by the painting contractor working on the bridge.
Kind regards
Jagtar Rakkar
RTA Customer Services
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There must be 2 Tom uglys bridges that have a graffiti problem, the graffiti on the Tom Uglys bridge at Blakehurst was definitely not fixed by an RTA contractor.

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A person is caught vandalising property a judge understanding the damage graffiti "artists do, makes an example of her by sentencing her to 3 months jail and this happens........

Sentence for graffiti overturned
HARRIET ALEXANDER
5/03/2009 1:00:01 AM

THE judge said a jail term should never have been imposed and even the prosecution sought no further punishment than a criminal conviction and a good behaviour bond.

But according to the NSW Opposition, Cheyene Back, 18, who has no criminal history but was sentenced to jail for drawing graffiti on a cafe wall, should be behind bars.

"We need to put fear into people's lives," said the Opposition's justice spokesman, Greg Smith. "To just slap people on the wrist and give people a good behaviour bond, or even less than that, the problem really is that there's not any enforcement of the laws."

Ms Back pleaded guilty to writing the word "2shie" on the wall of the Hyde Park Cafe on January 11. Downing Centre Local Court magistrate Ian McRae sentenced her to three months' jail.

Yesterday she won an appeal against the severity of the sentence. Judge Greg Hosking in the District Court wiped her criminal record and put her on a 12-month good behaviour bond. The judge said he did not condone vandalism but the law clearly stated jail terms should be imposed only when no other penalties were appropriate.
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18/3/09

A GRAFFITI gang of teenagers in western Sydney look set to pay the penalty for being too keen to have their name up in lights.

The group of intelligence-challenged youths filmed themselves graffiting a Fairfield skate park and posted the video on the internet.

But along with images of themselves, the teens posted their full names online, the Fairfield Advance reports.

And now they could be slapped with a $2200 fine under the State Government’s tough new graffiti laws.

The film, shot in Wetherill Park, shows the teenagers performing stunts on their scooters.

The group has posted more than 25 films on YouTube, with many featuring their tag on roads, footpaths and pedestrian crossings around the city.
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We'll see how tough the new graffiti laws are.