Philly War on Graffiti: March 2016

Every Easter down South Street there is the zombie walk (http://phillyzombie.com/). Though I am not Christian, I am a religious Jew, and always found this a combination of weird/funny/disrespectful. Of course I do watch The Walking Dead (and because I make the wifey watch it as well, I am weeks behind - no spoilers please). Anyway, graffiti is a lot like a zombie - no matter how many times you shoot it/report it, it keeps coming back. No, I am not advocating for shooting vandalizers in the head (unfortunately breaking the hand is not an option either). Maybe make them help clean up rather than pay (or in addition to) the $300 fine (http://www.phila.gov/qualityoflife/PDF/online_Graffiti_Upate2.pdf).

5th between Bainbridge and South - Sunday 3/20

5th between Bainbridge and South - Sunday 3/27. The brown part was cleaned up.

It keeps coming back to this area. Like clockwork.

This has two weeks worth of graffiti. Last week was wifey's birthday. I took off from work on Friday to prepare for her party and did my graffiti hunt further down Washington to spend more time with her on Sunday to celebrate. Hence, no post last week. Today I had other plans, but got caught on one particularly bad block (5xx) of Kater St., spending over an hour just on it. Bad internet connection didn't help. Anyway, a resident of that block saw me hanging out there and finally asked me what I was doing. I told her I report graffiti and she said she and her husband had just gotten new siding to her house which was caked in graffiti. She thought she would have to hire a private person to clean it. I explained the wonders of Philly 311 and how the City will get to it. She seemed happy - unhopefully when the graffiti returns she hopefully will report it.

I am not able to figure out who Kater was. The earliest record of the street name is 1869. (http://www.phillyhistory.org/historicstreets/default.aspx).

Kater, besides meaning tomcat or hangover in Dutch and German, is the surname of the following people:

Fritz Kater, German trade unionist
Henry Kater, German-British physicist
Norman William Kater, Australian physician
Peter Kater, American pianist

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kater)

I also discovered that there is more bureaucracy than I realized. Some requests get closed immediately. I realized that some of them are in the geographic area of the Center City District, hence the Graffiti Abatement Team won't complete. You have to contact them separately. Even then, CCD won't do parking kiosks, hence you have to contact PPA. Oy. Working on this one.

Current Map. Not sure why things are showing up north Broad. Weird.

Sunday March 13

18th and Walnut and Chestnut - before I realized you need to contact CCD.

Monday March 14

20xx Sansom - eventually e-mailed PPA and they got this pretty quickly.

Tuesday March 15

Also 20xx Sansom. CCD got the wall. PPA got the kiosk.

31st and Gray's Ferry - Security gate. Risen from the dead graffiti.

Wednesday March 16

5th and Lombard

Friday March 18

I ended up reporting a lot of "illegal dumping". They get the litter on the street, but not the stuff folks leave out "early" on the curb. I need to do some more research on this on what the law is regarding trash out in front of homes.

They got a good chunk of the Washington Ave. stuff. Some places, like the prior chocolate factory, may just be too hard to get to. Oy. Otherwise, the area looks much nicer... at least for now. Some of it is still listed as "in progress" in Philly 311. At least they are trying.

Sunday March 20

3rd and South - isn't it a federal offense to deface a Rita's?

18th and Catharine - around the corner from me.

4th and South

3rd and South

Monday March 21

2nd and Washington. Nagging me for a while - hard to get a good shot of it until now. They also cleaned off all the stickers as well.

18th and Christian. Around the corner from me.

31st and Gray's Ferry. Been trying to get a good picture of this one for a while as well.

19th and Catharine. PVC pipe is not listed as surface type in Philly 311.

Tuesday March 22

5th and Lombard across the street from my synagogue.

32nd and Gray's Ferry. I still need to walk down this area at some point. Lots of zombie graffiti here.

Wednesday March 23

Fast Day (of Esther) leading into the holiday of Purim. It didn't stop me from going after graffiti.

9th and Christian

6th and South

18th and South behind Walgreens.

Across the street from another synagogue - 20th and Sansom. Not done yet (Good Friday is a city holiday) but I did ask from the to let me know if it's CCD or if they can pass it on.

20th and Walnut - not closed out right away. Maybe Philly 311 is being nice and getting it done even though it should be CCD?

Thursday March 24
Purim!

6th and Lombard - by the historic African-American church.

18th and Bainbridge

6th and Lombard

Columbus Blvd. by I95 off ramp.

Friday March 25

12th and Bainbridge

Sunday March 27

Most of this in and around the 500 block of Kater. I probably could have gotten more if the internet connection and/or my phone was better. Anyone want to sponsor that?