February, 2008 Three cars were tagged with gang graffiti on 8th St. Police came to our BSCL meeting on February 7 and briefed us.

Fall, 2008 Gang tags are beginning to appear again along the W&OD trail. The County has painted them over. March 24, 2006 Removed a tag from a boulder between the park and Barcroft Shopping Center on Columbia Pike.

March 10, 2006 The County removed tags from a picnic shelter beside the FMR trail near Long Branch.

September 10, 2003 Painted over a tag from a pylon beside the W&OD trail. Someone else removed a tag from the observation deck over Sparrow Swamp.

September 8, 2003 Removed a tag from the bus shelter on Arlington Boulevard. Removed a tag from a stop sign at Arlington Boulevard and Pershing Dr.


2000-2002 were really good years!


September 1, 1999 Removed a gang tag from the stone wall on Columbia Pike between Taylor and Geo. Mason.

April 14, 1999 Removed gang tags from the telephone booth at Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run.

April 5, 1999 Removed gang tags on "Hello" labels from eight spots along Columbia Pike.

February 26, 1999 Removed gang tags from the wall, trashcan and signal box at Taylor and Columbia Pike.

January 13, 1999 Removed a gang tag from the telephone booth at Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run.

November 23, 1998 Removed graffiti from a sign on the W&OD Trail.

August 20, 1998 Removed graffiti from a rock near the W&OD Trail at Columbia Pike.

August 20, 1998 The County removed the other half of the graffiti on the wall on Columbia Pike at S. Taylor.

August 19, 1998 Removed half of the graffiti on the wall on Columbia Pike at S. Taylor

August 6, 1998 Called the Arlington Graffiti Hotline to report that the markings on the wall on Columbia Pike at S. Taylor had not been removed.

July 24, 1998 Called the Arlington Graffiti Hotline to report painted markings on the stone wall on Columbia Pike at S. Taylor. Other residents also called.

July 6, 1998 Removed graffiti from the rock at 9th Street S. and the W&OD Trail.

May 5, 1998 Removed graffiti from both stop signs at 9th Street S. and the W&OD trail.

April 28, 1998 Removed graffiti from the stop sign at Wakefield and Pershing Drive.

March 24, 1998 Repainted a power line pylon to cover many markings that appeared overnight.

February 2, 1998 Removed markings from the pay phone at Columbia Pike and the W & OD Trail.

January 22, 1998 Breaking a long stretch: removed markings from the rock where 9th St meets the W & OD Trail.

October 30, 1997 Removed markings from 8 curb cuts, only to discover that VDOT had put them there. Oops!

October 20, 1997 Painted over gang tag on a powerline pylon near the first W&OD trestle above Columbia Pike.

July 7, 1997 Cleaned chalked directions ("Before Beer", "After Beer" and more) and huge gobs of flour off the trail surface left by organizers of some event. There is no rain in the forecast, and that stuff will be there for weeks if not removed. Graffiti is graffiti even when done by white men in running shorts.

May 2, 1997 Painted over large gang tags on the powerline pylon just above Columbia Pike.

March 8, 1997 Removed an old fashioned obscenity from a downed tree in Grandma's Creek. Removed a probable gang tag from a sign on the W&OD near the first trestle.

February 22, 1997 Removed a gang tag and obscenity from the stop sign at the bottom of 9th Street hill. Also removed a lover's tag (?) from the railing along the W&OD at Huffman's Whitewater. Finger nail polish remover did both.

February 10, 1997 Removed a tag in heavy yellow paint from power line pole.

January 4, 1997 Removed 5 gang tags from the bus shelter at Columbia Pike and Taylor.

January 2, 1997 Removed gang markings from the signal box at Columbia Pike and Taylor.

December 2, 1996 Removed a gang tag from the signal box across from Barcroft School.

November 11, 1996 They're back. Removed gang markings from six separate locations on the telephone booth at Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run. It took two foil-wrapped finger nail polish remover pads, a few dabs of GoJo Orange Pumice hand cleaner to polish the shadow off the aluminum, and a paper towel.

July 8 to November 11, 1996 Longest time yet without new graffiti. Haven't tested our new solvents!

July 8, 1996 Removed a rap group sticker from the stop sign at the W&OD and 9th Street and discovered a tiny gang tag under it in the white part of the letter S. Removed it with an alcohol swab.

July 2, 1996 Removed four obscene rock band promo stickers at Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run.

June 21, 1996 Removed a gang tag from the signal box across from Barcroft School.

June 10, 1996 Removed a gang tag from the back of a sign in the 900 block of Wakefield.

June 6, 1996 Found some paint to match the electric line pylons along Four Mile Run, and painted several of them completely around the base to a level of about 6 feet, eliminating the patches from former removals. Removed several non-gang markings in the process.

May 28, 1996 Removed gang tags from a traffic light box and unknown tags from the sidewalk at Columbia Pike and Wakefield.

May 27, 1996 Removed gang tags from a pole, a traffic light box and the bus stop at Colunbia Pike and Taylor.

May 9, 1996 Removed obscenities and names from the stop sign and pavement where the trail from Park Drive comes down to the W&OD, near the first trestle.

April 19, 1996. Completed removal of old pavement markings from the W&OD trail at the first trestle.

April 15, 1996. Removed an obscene gang tag from the stripe in the center of the W&OD trail.

April 5, 1996. Removed old graffiti from a culvert in Grandma's Creek referring to Latin people in a highly derogatory manner.

March 30, 1996. Removed an obscenity from a signal box across from Barcroft school and a gang tag from a sign on Wakefield at Columbia Pike.

March 16, 1996. Removed a gang tag from the stripe in the center of the W&OD trail.

March 15, 1996. Removed gang graffiti from the dumpster at Roy Rogers.

March 7, 1996. Removed gang graffiti from a number of spots just below the first trestle on the W&OD trail, including a trail rules sign and the signs pointing to the nature center.

March 4, 1996. The b-boys have been busy. Removed gang tag graffiti from the traffic light control box at Columbia Pike and Taylor, from three places on the Metro stop just a few yards along Columbia Pike, and from the mailbox at 9th and Taylor. Also removed a very small white logo from the school crossing sign at 9th and Buchanan.

March 1, 1996. Removed gang graffiti from a sign on the W&OD trail below Park Street. Removed markings from another sign in the same location. Karen Murray, a reporter from the Arlington Journalwho lives in Barcroft and runs on the W&OD trail, was with us at the time, working on an article published March 13th.

February 19, 1996. Removed stylized gang graffiti from the shopping center wall on Buchanan at Columbia Pike.

February 11, 1996. Removed gang graffiti from the back of the phone box where the W&OD crosses Columbia Pike and from a powerline pylon further up the trail just north of 7th Street S.

January 30, 1996. Removed graffiti from four signs at Nineth and Wakefield. Various gangs had trashed a Neighborhood Watch sign.

December 31, 1995. Completed removal of the gang marking from the tree by the W&OD at Eighth Street. Removed gang markings from five of the nine split rails on the little fence along the W&OD above Huffman's Whitewater. Further up the trail above Sparrow Swamp removed a non-gang "was here" from a powerline pylon.

December 28, 1995. Began removal of a gang marking from a tree by the W & OD where the path comes down from Eighth Street South. Needs more work.

November 28, 1995. Removed gang graffiti from a power pylon just below the first trestle north of Columbia Pike. There were marks of two different gangs.

November 15, 1995. Removed gang graffiti from the inside and outside of the telephone box on Columbia Pike at Four Mile Run and from the nearby wood rail fence.

November 7, 1995 - Election Day. A Washington Post article featuring our graffiti patrol. (Was the Post electioneering? -- This had been a Republican issue in the campaign.)

October 30, 1995. Removed a gang marking from the no parking sign where Seventh Street South ends at Four Mile Run.

October 21, 1995. Removed a gang marking from the electric pole in Four Mile Run nearest to Columbia Pike.

October 17, 1995. Removed a gang marking from a sidewalk at 9th and Wakefield. Removed graffiti from the signpost of the W & OD sign at Columbia Pike.

September 16, 1995. Painted over graffiti on four electric poles in the park. Removed graffiti from one stop sign and one trail rules sign in the park at the bottom of 9th Street hill.

June, 1995. Painted over graffiti on electric poles in the park.

Spring, 1995. Removed graffiti from electric poles in Four Mile Run Park, rock at base of hill on 9th Street South, neighborhood sidewalks along 9th Street South, street surfaces on 9th Street, wall on George Mason Drive at 4th Street South, stop sign at 8th and Buchanan.

1996 Above here

An Explanation

Sometime during the dark winter of 1995 the marks of a local gang appeared on a Barcroft stop sign at 8th Street and Buchanan, and on three Barcroft sidewalks. We did not recognize the marks as gang-related, but Arlington’s finest eventually informed us they were the work of a gang based just outside our neighborhood. The graffiti was their tag, denoting that they considered our neighborhood their territory.

We called the police graffiti line, and they said they would check it out. They did, but nothing happened to the graffiti. We called again and they said they had photographed the graffiti, but the property owner is responsible for removing sidewalk graffiti, and we should contact the Signs Division of Arlington County Public Works to have the sign replaced. We did, but nothing happened.

At about the same time, someone stapled signs all over the neighborhood for a barbershop on Wilson Boulevard. We were annoyed. Pole signs are for yard sales, lost cats, leaf collection schedules and such, not for general business ads. Real estate agents push the envelope, but by County ordinance they are required to remove their signs after a weekend open house. If many of Arlington’s 15,000 businesses stapled signs to the poles at our street corners, we would have a really ugly neighborhood.

Enter the BSCL Graffiti Squad. We removed the signs. More satisfying was removing the gang graffiti, which we did with a product called Goof Off. Reading the can showed that Goof Off is actually Xylene (Xylol) a solvent available by the quart at your local hardware store if you had a local hardware store. With either chemical and a wire brush we cleaned the sidewalks and actually got the paint off the stop sign as well. (Xylene is thought by the State of California to be a carcinogen, so we use heavy rubber gloves and hold our breath.) Then we discovered graffiti from yet another gang on the rock at the base of 9th Street where pedestrians and bicycles enter the park. We got that off too. What fun! Next was a wall on George Mason Drive. The County had refused to remove the grafitti there, even though the County had constructed the wall, so we did it. The log above notes subsequent occasions. As time went by we discovered that a wire brush alone without solvent works best on wood. For smoother surfaces we use paper towels, steel wool or 3M's abrasive pads with a solvent to float away debris. We have now moved on to less toxic solvents (see Methods below), doing most of our work with acetone (active ingredient in nail polish remover). We bought some paint at Home Depot to match the grey on the powerline pylons, which were beginning to look like patchwork.

We understand that prompt removal of graffiti is important in controlling its spread. If you see graffiti appear in your corner of our neighborhood, be aware that those are probably not random markings, but a gang tagging its territory, even if they seem to be nonsense markings. Get them off. Or drop us an email to graffiti@bscl.org and we will pass the word to the Graffiti Patrol. Now that Arlington County has its own graffiti hotline up, you can even report graffiti to them if you see it in other neighborhoods. They will remove it from public property, or send a letter to the owner if it is on private property. (We don't make that distinction--we just remove graffiti wherever we find it. So far that has not caused any problems.) Arlington's Graffiti Hotline is the police non-emergency number, 703-358-2222. Or for parks, call 703-228-6525. The County says they have improved the response, and some people have reported getting good results from them, but we have not yet, so we just keep taking the graffiti off.

Methods

Another non-toxic experiment was Go-Jo Natural Orange Pumice Hand Cleaner. It works well for some things. We are reserving Xylene for the worst jobs. The fumes seem highly toxic even when used outdoors, and there is a warning label on the can stating that California found it could cause cancer. We have also been advised to use liquid caustics, which cause spray paint resins to craze or wrinkle, a technique to prevent the partly dissolved paint from being reabsorbed back into the substrate (avoids staining or ghosting). In addition, we are told that 1.1.1 trichlorethane removes ball point pen ink, but we prefer hair spray for that. Alcohols work best on markers, EB or DB on mean streak paint sticks, and glycerin is said to be best for adhesive labels (We use paint thinner or acetone for that).

We received and have used a sample of Redi-Kwik 100.1 Graffiti Remover, a product containing menthadiene (chemical name, 4-isopropenyl-1-methycyclohexane. Common names: citrus terpenes, orange terpenes, menthadiene). It is a colorless liquid by-product of citrus, entirely of natural origin. The literature accompanying our sample recommends gloves, goggles, a breathing apparatus and good ventilation. But the salesman (Pierce Fitchett, 410-381-8400) thinks the product is non-toxic, and the manufacturer is using precautionary language in case the product excites allergies. He noted that it can melt some plastics, so you have to be careful where you use it. We tried it to remove ghosting left after removal of paint from a concrete patch, and later to remove paint from concrete. It does dissolve paint, but the results were about like other solvents we have used, and the stuff burns if it gets on your skin. Probably worth a try if you don't want to use petroleum-based solvents. The County is now using a product called Scuff, but have not tried it yet.

More recently we found Klean-Strip Graffiti Remover in a local store. It is product GA-166 by W.M.Barr and Co. Among other ingredients, it contains some apparently nasty stuff called Methylene Chloride, another carcinogenic chemical that can also cause "neurological and physiological damage." Whew! We used it outdoors on a rock, and it worked really well, bubbling up the paint that had been very difficult to remove with Xylene and a wire brush. You just have to wear heavy rubber gloves, stand upwind and hold your breath. We'll reserve this one for the "impossible" jobs.

Our favorite abrasive for concrete, stone and wood is a wire brush. For signs and other surfaces where a wire brush is too harsh we like 3M's scouring pad known as Scotch Brite Scour Pads or sold in hardware stores as 000 steel wool replacement. We use it with nail polish remover. It is amazingly effective that way, with a pad of nail polish remover on the surface, covered by the 3M pad and vigorously scrubbed.

Our bicyclist's graffiti kit now has four Clinipad nail polish remover pads, two alcohol swabs, a 2 inch square of 3M scouring pad and two paper towels, all tucked into a zipper sandwich bag. It slides in your pocket and weighs less than an ounce. It has handled almost everything we have seen that you would attack with a pocket kit of any kind. Add a four inch section of wire brush and you are prepared for tougher jobs. Our shoulder bag kit has a full-size wire brush, alcohol, water, acetone, xylene, scouring pads, water, paper towels, rubber gloves, and now some of the new citrus-based cleaners. For more techniques, see Doug Smith's page below.

Signs

Pole Sign Remover

This is a simple device designed to be carried in a bicyclist's handlebar bag. It consists of a nine inch piece of lightweight aluminum tubing or pvc plastic pipe, and about 25 feet of nylon parachute cord. We used an old tv antenna mast for the tubing, but hardware stores have pvc pipe laughably cheap. Parachute cord comes from hardware or surplus stores, or on the Internet from places like Countycomm. Actually, any reasonably strong rope will do, but the parachute cord is very strong for its weight.

Cut the tubing to a 9 inch length or longer to make sure you can hold it with both hands. Run the cord through the tube and tie it securely. Roll the cord around the tube and use a rubber band to keep it from unraveling in your pack.

When you need to remove a pole sign that has been nailed way up there, just unroll the cord, hold the end in one hand, and toss the tube up and over the sign. Then roll the free end of the cord around one end of the tube, grab it with both hands, and pull that sucker down! If the sign is stubbon, yanks work better to dislodge the nails than steady pressure. Some signs are harder than others, but we have not yet failed to bring one down with enough persistance.

And here is the definitive anti-graffiti link on the Web. Doug Smith has an incredible collection of stuff about graffiti, including links to hundreds of web pages with graffiti info, and philosophical discussions of graffiti as art or vandalism. The site has been recognized as one of the top 5% on the Web. All inspired by a problem in his home neighborhood.

For the b-boys:

This page was revised on: March 8, 2008.