7 On Your Side Investigates<\/a> even spotted a parked van that was tagged.<\/p>\nCarlos Vera, who recently took over a downtown caf\u00e9, says the tagging outside his business appeared just days ago.<\/p>\n
He worries the constant graffiti undermines the European-inspired atmosphere he’s trying to create inside his cafe.<\/p>\n
“Over in Europe, you never see graffiti like this,” he said.<\/p>\n
Kevin Montalbo, who helps maintain a downtown apartment building, says his team paints over graffiti every morning.<\/p>\n
“Every day, we’re just covering up the paint, every day,” he said. But the work doesn’t last long.<\/p>\n
“Within 30, 40 minutes, you’ll see another person just tagging.”<\/p>\n
He described the effort as “a cat and mouse game.”<\/p>\n
A graffiti abatement team with the Historic Core Business Improvement District works seven days a week to paint and pressure-wash away tags. Blair Besten, who leads the BID, says the surge has been dramatic.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, [tagging] a tree really gets under my skin because, you know, to get that off, we have to really be skillful,” she said.<\/p>\n
According to the Historic Core BID, crews covered up 9,483 tags in 2023. Last year, that number jumped to 31,590.<\/p>\n
Besten believes the socalled “Graffiti Towers” – a pair of heavily tagged highrises that drew national attention – have attracted more taggers to the area.<\/p>\n
“When that hit the news, everybody was here and if they couldn’t get to the towers themselves, they were in the rest of the neighborhood,” she said.<\/p>\n
Vera says he appreciates art, but not what he sees on the streets around his caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
“I personally think art and graffiti is pretty cool, but this isn’t art, this is not graffiti. This is just a bunch of scribbles,” he said.<\/p>\n
His message to taggers: put down the spray paint and leave downtown.<\/p>\n
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