Daily Gripe - Graffiti

I haven't had much to gripe about recently, which is a good thing, but this week we ended up with some random graffiti on the front of the building where I live.  To quote Peter Griffin from Family Guy - "that really grinds my gears".  Fortunately, in Los Angeles, the city will come paint over the graffiti if you report it to them.  It happened some time Monday (or at least that's when intrepid husband spotted it), and the city painted over it today.  It has to be said that I'm super grateful for the expediency.  Out of curiosity, I googled how much the City of Los Angeles spends annually on graffiti removal and got numbers ranging from $11 million to $30 million.  Is it possible to be shocked by that number, yet strangely not all that surprised at the same time?  Whenever I see ridiculous numbers like these, I just think to how far that money could go if put into schools instead (not that I want to turn this into a political gripe).

Not that I think it's fair for businesses or other buildings to be tagged with graffiti, but it's really low to be doing it on somebody's place of residence.  We chose to buy our townhouse in what is supposed to be a safe and friendly neighborhood, not somewhere plagued by random acts of vandalism.  All of this came 2 days after being at a friend's house where we caught a kid tagging down the entire side of the building where she lives.  In an apartment that I lived in previously, I always felt bad for the shop on the corner who had to put a coating of fresh paint weekly over whatever had been most recently sprayed on the side of their building.

I guess it's strange to be able to appreciate the artwork involved in some of the graffiti that I see around the place and wish that the "artists" involved had a better outlet through which to express themselves, rather than defacing somebody's property.  I guess I'll just be happy that the front of my building is back to normal...for now at least.

/End rant!