From “Army engineers clean up graffiti along L.A. River” — LATimes (Dec 28, 2009) by Andrew Blankstein:
…The whitewash is part of a program the Army Corps of Engineers began in September to cover or erase graffiti along 100 miles of the county’s sprawling flood-control system, which includes the downtown area as well as the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and the southern end of the county.
Using $837,000 in federal stimulus money, the corps awarded a one-year contract to San Fernando-based BJD Resourcing to remove the tags in rivers, channels and creeks. In some areas, crews have used high-pressure water to spray off the toxic paint used in tagging. Hazardous-material crews would dam and capture all the paint and water runoff to keep it out of the riverbed. For the most part, however, the work is being done using waterway-safe paint, said Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey E. Koontz of the corps.
Motorized paint sprayers, — using 63,000 gallons of paint in a typical day — are the tool of choice. In three months, the corps has covered about 13 square miles of walls, banks and bridge abutments, equivalent to painting the entire city of Downey.
What a waste of money and time. This just creates a fresh palette for the young artists. Busy work, and at least as destructive to the habitat as the kids’ endeavors.
I grew up in L.A. but now I live in AZ. I would like to know if the ‘cats’ are still there, the portal covers on the side of the river for water draining into the river around the ‘narrows’ by Golden Gate Fwy. used to have black and white cat faces on them! This was years ago…are any still there?
What a waste of valuable money that should go to mentoring youth using the arts!
What a waste of money.
Waste of money especially because the paint colors never match and they only repaint as far up as the graffiti itself, leaving patches of even uglier wall. I’d much rather see artful graffiti than this re-painting.
There’s all kinds of wastes of money going on. It’s amazing how even city planners misuse funds to get their projects built. Really, stupid and horrifying projects that fly in the face of a fine artist’s inspiration.