Where do you find 7,622,234 square feet of graffiti?

The Los Angeles City Council recently asked Caltrans for a little update on maintenance issues along freeways in the city. The staff of Caltrans District 7 -- which includes Los Angeles and Ventura counties -- responded with a report that contained some fun (and depressing) stats:

-- 75% of all landscaped areas along the district are in need of rehabilitation, and about 90% of the vegetation is at or near the end of its natural life.

-- 7,622,234 square feet of graffiti were removed from along freeways in the district last year, including 4,479,674 square feet within the city.

-- Removing the graffiti cost $2.7 million.

-- 60,743 cubic yards of litter were removed from freeways in the district last year, including 14,438 cubic yards in the city of L.A. For what it's worth, I notice that sometimes it takes a week or more for Caltrans to remove bumpers and various other car parts lodged in the guardrail of the Pasadena Freeway.

-- Removing the garbage cost $8 million.

-- 599 homeless camps were "cleaned up" along freeways in the district last year, including 194 in L.A.

-- Steve Hymon

Photo: "Galileo, Jupiter, Apollo" by John Wehrle on the 101 Freeway marred by graffiti in 2007. Credit: Al Seib/ Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Nigel]

Why not just learn to love the graffiti? I think a lot of it is truly beautiful. Think of this as a giant art project - because that's what 90% of the graffiti is all about.

I personally would rather my tax dollars went to health care for poor children and housing for the homeless than graffiti removal.

When Chief Bratton says "Thaaaat's nawt arrth" it makes me think - O yeah?

A lot of us think it is art.

[Sally Smith]

No, 90% of graffiti is NOT art. Most of it is done by kids who belong either to gangs or tagging crews. If you love graffiti so much, invite these youths to paint all over your house.

[Sickn tired]

I'm sure the two young taggers who shot and the elderly woman when she came out to tell them to stop tagging her store were just "artists".

And the group of young girls who left their friend for dead when she fell off a bridge as they were spray painting graffiti... well, they were all artists too..

And the giant letters on the LA river walls that will cost millions to clean up because the paint is toxic to the plants and animals in the river, well it's just "art".

Right....

[Spokker]

Nigel, if they were artists they could approach a business and ask them to commission a mural.

But I'm looking at the photo in the blog post. I don't know where that was taken, but it looks like taggers (not artists) ruined the work of some true artists.

[Bob]

in th Summer of 2007,I spent a month traveling all over China, Including Shanghai and Beijing, did not see any Graffiti.

Why can't we Americans be proud of our country?