Don’t ‘paint’ over residents’ resentments

Allan Mazur, South 11th Avenue
   Few people I know like graffiti; although some might argue that it is a misunderstood art form, it does tend to conjure up movie trailer images of the gritty urban ghetto.
   Perhaps if our three local budding artists were better schooled, they would have provided us with a somewhat more pleasing sight — images of our town in its formative years: The Main Street Bakery, Old Sacred Heart Church, the Manville movie theater, mayors past and present at the Helm of Leadership, the Railroad Avenue train station.
   I’d even settle for a decent rendering of Wal-Mart. However, we are instead subjected to moronic stick figures, aerosol cans with arrows, and misspelled words. All this in a misguided effort to show us what some teens are capable of artistically after possibly more than a few hits on the bong or beer pong. But as usual, I digress.
   The problem remains not so much what to do with all this unloved art but who gets to pay for the cleanup. Money and its equivalents are at the core of this; but nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
   If it were as easy as hosing off the “damage,” then this might be a non-issue. But some of the graffiti is on porous brick which needs specific chemicals for removal. This is not a job for Ajax.
   It gets more complicated because of the juvenile court system. Then, who will pay when the mischievous criminals are not caught? That’s another issue here.
   The Manville council hastily put together an ordinance but worded it in such a way as to create more confusion than consensus. It has now wisely decided to revisit Mr. Komoroski’s idea to end urban blight in the community.
   If any ordinance gets codified, it needs to provide a solution without assaulting the victim. There has to be language dealing with restitution that takes the legal onus largely off the property owner. It was suggested at the March 23 meeting that a graffiti clean-up fund could be created.
   For me, that’s the equivalent of building in a flood plain and being bailed out yearly (pun intended) with more taxpayer dollars. The $500 bounty is a pipe dream. No teen will testify in court about “tagging” against his/her peers. Most of us are snuggled in bed hoping we still have a job to go to while these activities are going on and the police can only do so much; often on luck.
   We can complain about parental vigilance; still, two of the teens lived elsewhere, so this is not just a Manville matter.
   I am not smart enough to provide a solution. I do believe that in a town of this size there are possibly more than a few people who might. Yelling brilliant ideas at the newspaper or at the television is not enough.
   If you’re too shy to attend a council meeting or too busy working a menial second job to be able to afford to live here, send a letter or drop it off as you pay your next property tax bill before May 1st.
   Presently, the council’s ideas are limited to its members. Their “solution,” as it stands, would beautify the town’s outward image as it paints over some ugly resentments that won’t go away like some graffiti, no matter what cleanser is used.