This. This right here. This is why.

I love the Hill District. No, I don’t hang out there. No, I don’t live there. But I appreciate its history, its people that remain committed to seeing it free from crime, and I appreciate those that are working to redevelop the area, refurbish it, re-ANYTHING it. I love watching the old buildings along Fifth and Forbes remade with new life, new paint, new brick. I love it that there are people that are willing to invest in it. I love that one of those townhouses has an in-ground pool in its backyard.

I love turning onto Gist Street from the Boulevard and seeing that giant green bunny and that giant King Kong peering over the fence. I love this painting (photo courtesy of Saucy, my bitch).

So you can imagine my horror the recent day when that graffiti appeared. Today, I was determined to stop and snap a photo to show you all why I call the “street-art” criminals … well … CRIMINAL TRASH.

You can also imagine my horror this morning when I noticed fresh yellow tags sprayed all over Sun King Marketing’s building which only recently got a fresh coat of forest green paint. Sun King has a great sign on their building wall facing the Boulevard, a changing sign that sometimes will list the names of their newest employees, that sometimes will tell you that the Duquesne Dukes can be found if you go straight, and that sometimes, like now, tells you to turn right if you’d like to find the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And here, today, their beautiful building is marred.

Please tell me how you justify or defend that? And how you justify or defend it without sounding like an internet troll hell-bent on disturbing the shit.

Also? Would I be arrested if I patrolled the streets with a paint-ball gun and shot the living daylights out of any hoodlum found spray-painting graffiti? And if so, how much time would I be looking at? So I can do a cost-benefit analysis.

Category: Annoying Burghers, Downtown happenings | May 20, 2008 | | ShareThis