Barcroft Neighborhood

Article from the Arlington Journal by Karen Murray March 13, 1996 In Arlington, it's Kilroy versus the scrawl of the wild Call him Kilroy. Swift of bike, sure of hand, he is to graffiti what Batman is to the Joker. As often as scrawled initials or gang trademarks appear on streets and signs in Arlington's Barcroft neighborhood, a member of the Barcroft Graffiti Patrol--a side function of the well-organized and long-standing Barcroft School and Civic League--is there to wreak extinction. Kilroy and I are standing just below a trail bridge over Four Mile Run, where Barcroft segues into Arlington Forest. This is a common chunk of my morning racewalk and one where occasionally, jarringly, I see a scrawl commemorating the passage of "Kermit," the "Little Locos," or some individual or group represented by the initials "NP." (Notary Public? Nude Partying) These marks started popping up roughly a year ago, and the Barcrofters learned from Arlington police that at least some of them were gang markings. "I don't get the drift that these are, at this point, dangerous groups," says Kilroy as he pulls out his fightback kit: a wire brush, paper towels, a thing like a kitchen scrub pad and a can of xylene solvent, trade name Goof Off. "Some marks come from individuals and some come from what you might call gang wannabes. But we're serious about getting rid of it--Barcroft is our neighborhood, not anyone's territory." Graffiti on signs are mostly done with Magic Marker, and a few swipes with the Goof Off and towels are enough to erase it from shiny surfaces. Even so, Kilroy is a bit of an artist. "You have to work across the shapes of the letters so they don't persist even as a blur," he says, demonstrating, with the kind of finishing strokes a housepainter might use on your woodwork. Other technique tips: "If you see graffiti on unpainted wood, a plain wire brush, no solvent, works best. You can paint over what you see on streets or sidewalks, but, myself, I like to get down with the brush and the solvent and work it off--so it looks like nothing was ever there. A stiff wire brush will actually bring up the concrete dust." Power pylons, a popular spot for bikepath graffiti, are the toughest and require painting out. "On Columbia Pike, we have one merchant who's found some paint that almost nothing will stick to--a few swipes and the marks are right off. And phone booths, those are easy. Anodized aluminum cleans off in a flash." This is a man who knows his work. Graffiti is becoming a concern in suburbs that have never before seen much other than the idle, Kilroy-was-here scrawls of high-schoolers. Arlington police encourage citizens to report graffiti, in order to both track gang activity and take measures toward cleanup. But many Arlington residents have reported tedious waits for graffiti removal--in one case, nearly four months. And as anyone who observes graffiti can tell you, leaving it be is a sure-fire way to attract more. Kilroy and his fellow Barcrofters, cutting to the chase, simply go out and erase it. What a revolutionary idea. (Do you have graffiti in your neighborhood? Can you spare some elbow grease? Hint, hint.) "You see something new about, oh, every week," Kilroy says, packing up his Goof Off again. "We're usually right on top of it. It's kind of funny--we're playing tag in a way. You take off their mark, and they get more subtle--distort the symbols so they're hard to recognize, or hide them, say behind the phone booth instead of inside or on the front. "Doesn't matter. We get rid of any markings we see, and after a while they have to hide it so carefully that there's almost no point to putting it up. At least, that's how we want them to feel." With no pylons painted, and no marks on wood or concrete, this week's pass was easy--a rash of graffiti gone in less than five minutes. Kilroy gets on his bike to wipe out one more sign defacement elsewhere that's been reported to the Barcroft Graffiti Hotline. I wave, turn back up the approach to the W&OD and pause for a last glance at the "No Motorized Vehicles" sign which, a few minutes ago, was a billboard for the Little Locos. There's no sign of the "LL" marking. Kilroy was here. Karen Murray lives in Arlington. Her column appears Wednesdays. Copyright 1997 Journal Newspapers, Inc. Karen not only lives in Arlington, she is a Barcrofter. She is obviously a fine writer, and on the day this column appeared the Washington Post reported that she had just won an award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance for some of her previous work. This page was last revised on: October 21, 2005. Home Calendar Headlines Location History Goals Newsletter People Whats New Conservation Plan Community House More! Press Links Contacts Search

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