Description
Most of the wall at the South East corner at the intersection between 5th street and Oak Street is plastered with random writing. It is highly visible from the freeway and is the major way Oakland Citizens access the 880 freeway. This makes the entire city look bad.
39 Comments
Acknowledged City of Oakland (Verified Official)
City of Oakland (Verified Official)
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/Connect/ReportaProblem/index.htm
Thank you.
City of Oakland (Verified Official)
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/Connect/ReportaProblem/index.htm
Thank you.
City of Oakland (Verified Official)
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/Connect/ReportaProblem/index.htm
Thank you.
Anonymous (Guest)
Bob W (Registered User)
60mile (Registered User)
E. Gonsalves (Guest)
Display Name Blocked (39998) (Registered User)
While I agree that this particular building is an eyesore and it is unfortunate that the owners have not remedied the graffiti, broad-brushing the actions of the PWA and the City on this site really does not help the situation (Trying to shame them into action?). We need to push for more substantial solutions at city council meetings and by contacting the mayor's office.
Personally, I have been pleasantly surprised at the response time of the PWA when dealing with issues within the scope of their authority. Code Enforcement is another issue and it seems action depends more on the sensitivity of the property owner/tenant when served a notice.
As far as OPD allowing the graffiti to continue; well, we do seem to have an interesting problem there don't we? I'm afraid that is going to take a lot more work to remedy than calling them dysfunctional. It would really be nice to setup sting operations for graffiti prone areas, but resources are always a concern. What is your solution?
Chica (Registered User)
Chica (Registered User)
Chica (Registered User)
Display Name Blocked (39998) (Registered User)
Joe (Guest)
Big Sir (Registered User)
Jeff A (Registered User)
Get it Together Oaktown (Guest)
jr003 (Guest)
Pomduweb (Registered User)
Big Sir (Registered User)
Big Sir (Registered User)
Gary Knecht (Registered User)
Big Sir (Registered User)
Francisco (Guest)
Hi, I'm part of TDK Collective, we painted the STAY mural in Jack London on 3rd and Washington. We opened a crowd funding page to make the mutal happen. The wall look similar to ^ wall before we painted it.
A mural at this location would be great but supply cost alone for a wall that big is huge. If anyone has the owners contact, we would love to talk to him/her about maybe providing funds for the mural.
Also, we are having a free family friendly mural unveiling on Feb. 15th from 1-3:30pm. Come by and check out out latest work and our the sketch to our next project.
Gary Knecht (Registered User)
Property owner (last summer) was a retired gentleman living in Gardnerville, NV by the name of Jack N Solomon. When he and I spoke, he felt it was Caltrans responsibility to clean up the wall because they were working on the onramp and left the wall exposed. I doubt Caltrans agreed, but since then it has gotten worse. Perhaps a combination of funding from Mr Solomon and a new GoFundMe campaign could make it possible for something to happen. Here is the contact information I found last year for Mr Solomon: jnsolomonj@yahoo.com; 775-782-5188. Good luck!
For your unveiling on Feb 15 (unfortunately I'll be out of town), may I suggest you send details to info@jlda.org and ask them to promote your great work via their Jack London District email list.
jack (Registered User)
Simon Waddington (Registered User)
I agree with Jack that there is no point in doing anything with this until the fence is replaced. I would like to think the combination of a mural and fence would discourage future tagging but I've yet to find a fence that keeps out these "artists". They can't even keep the people from under 880 with that massive fence installation.
What I really want is a camera and remote controlled paint gun - I'll be happy to man it for a few hours a week just for the pleasure of tagging some taggers. That or a curfew!
Yes I know these are not real solutions, or ones that would not make the problem worse, but I think everyone is feeling a ton of frustration with the level tagging in JLD and everywhere else.
Escalating disparity in income distribution and slashing of social programs and policing levels - anyone see a connection there with escalating petty crime?
jack (Registered User)
E.G. (Registered User)
jack (Registered User)
artists who put their heart and soul into these displays? Not to mention the
cost for the time and material used. If you don't like it form a work party and
remove it at your expense. Jack
Betty (Guest)
I have passed by this building for years and felt compelled to post a comment after reading through this chain.
I remember the side of this building being graffiti free when the fence was in place that ran along the back of the building. Once that came down due to the freeway work, it was like sending an open invitation to local "artists" to use the building as a blank canvas.
It is obvious when driving through Oakland that there are some really talented graffiti artists in the area. Some building owners have commissioned these artists to create a piece on the side of their buildings, but I don't think that would really work in this case.
This building runs along side the freeway, and although it is seen by people driving and walking by, it's not a wall on a prime street that is out in the open, which would be more visually protected. Sadly even if the owner paid to have someone paint a mural, there's nothing stopping anyone from defacing the it. The days of not tagging over other artwork seem to be gone.
I agree that the owner of a building should keep their structure well maintained, but to what cost? In this case it's not like they haven't tried to do anything. CalTrans was contacted, they have tried to clean up this wall, but to no avail, taggers keep coming back and tagging. You can't expect the owner to pay to have the wall painted or cleaned every week, that could bankrupt any business owner.
Security cameras are an idea, but what would come of the footage? Potentially you'd see a group of people or person with no identifying features painting the wall at 3 AM on a Thursday morning. If by some miracle they didn't spray out the camera and you actually got something usable on film, what would OPD do? I'm pretty sure they have bigger issues on their plate right now than getting the people tagging the side of a building facing 880, and rightly so. I'd rather have them trying to catch the people that kicked in my 70 year old neighbors door at 11 PM and robbed her.
Again, I agree, this building is an eyesore, but let's be realistic, there is only so much the owner or the community can do. Obviously it's not that important of an issue to the city, because nothing was done to repair the fence when the owner first brought the problem up with CalTrans. Until the road work is finished and a better fence is put up, what is the point?
ps. I think it's complete BS that the building owners name, number and email was put on this site.....especially since he's no longer the owner.
Aelix (Registered User)
JR003 (Registered User)
That's my two cents on the issue. Whether I'm right or wrong, something needs to be done by our city council and by our city attorney.
Display Name Blocked (136083) (Registered User)
swank7 (Registered User)
ChestnutMare (Registered User)
Closed Simon Waddington (Registered User)
Simon Waddington (Registered User)
ChestnutMare (Registered User)