Gwinnett.talk

By Mark

March 21, 2007 11:26 AM | Link to this

I notice it spreading due to the influx of [outsiders] to Snellville. Graffiti is a sign that your neighborhood is declining because of the filth moving in.

By Pam

March 21, 2007 12:10 PM | Link to this

I want to thank Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful for always responding to my graffiti reports. They are usually cleaned up pretty fast.

I hope that Gwinnett will be proactive in their neighborhoods. I’ve found that the more I report graffiti, the less it appears. I was reporting on a weekly basis when I first moved to Gwinnett. Now, I haven’t reported graffiti in a year.

If you stay tough (and don’t give up or move away—which is the same thing), the vandals eventually stop working in your area of the neighborhood. For me, if I see graffiti on my drive to work, shopping or school, I report it. Whether it is 1 mile from my house or 20 miles from my house.

By V for Vendetta

March 21, 2007 2:16 PM | Link to this

Graffiti equals trash. Beware the change that it heralds. Clean it up all you want, but the graffiti itself isn’t what needs cleaning up people. It’s like putting your finger in a dam.

By rhelm

March 21, 2007 2:45 PM | Link to this

Yep, I’ve noticed a big difference. What used to be consistently all over the public areas around duluth and norcross has now spread to my very own house!! To hell with Gwinnett!!

By Pam

March 21, 2007 3:32 PM | Link to this

For everyone that has complained in this blog about graffiti, how many of you have actually reported it to Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful? You can’t be lazy and just blame people. You have to fight back regarding all of the destructive conditions in your neighborhood. You have to report it! If they don’t respond to your report, it’s fine to complain then. But if you don’t report it, don’t assume that someone else will. They have clean up ALL of the places I have reported.

I’m white and a newcomer to Gwinnett and I’ve determined that many of the long-term Gwinnetians are just whiners who give up and leave. If you move to another county with the same lazy attitude, that county will turn into the same place that you left. You are actually the problem!

By Wow

March 21, 2007 5:01 PM | Link to this

As far as Mark’s comment, all I can say is wow. And people wonder why the race card is played so much in Atlanta. Well there you go. To be honest, minorities feel that a good percentage of White people feel this way, but may not express their true feelings, except in these blogs. Please deal a new deck. Back to the subject, if the graffiti is in your neighborhood, you can also clean it up yourselves when you have some spare time.

By Sandy_G

March 21, 2007 6:05 PM | Link to this

We had problems in our area with graffitti appearing in the same spot, over, and over and over again. The property owner (a business) would dutifully report it and then paint over it and it would be back within a week. What fixed the problem was surveillance. Once the police caught the vandal in the act and he was arrested, the graffitti stopped. It’s been over a year now with no graffitti at that spot. We have also noticed that since this person or persons was arrested, graffitti in the entire area was down dramatically. That tells me that graffitti does not mean that your area has “been invaded” or is past saving, it means that you have a criminal element that needs to be dealt with and taken off the street.

Moving away is not the answer because this is happens in every city and town in America that is near a large metropolitan area. Dealing with graffitti takes persistence. If it appears once or 20 times, report it to Clean and Beautiful every single time. Eventually, the police will catch the person that is doing it and take them off the streets.

By Wheat Williams

March 21, 2007 7:59 PM | Link to this

There are two kinds of graffiti: 1) art, created by artists, although often unwanted and illegal; and 2) boundary and territory signs, or challenges to other rival gangs, put up by gangs and organized crime. These are called “gang tags”.

Most of the graffiti problems in Gwinnett are of the “gang tag” variety. This is a serious bellwether of organized crime and violence in our society.

This article in the AJC wasn’t effective because it didn’t address the most important issue: Who, specifically, are the individual gangs who are putting up the tags? Contact the police and work this out. Identify these groups, and report on their activities and organization. Only by getting this out in the open and into full public awareness are we going to have any success fighting it.

It’s not just about removing paint from walls.

By COOPIE

March 22, 2007 12:10 AM | Link to this

Living near Burns Rd in Norcross, we too have had results working with Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful and the the Gwinnett County Gang Task Force on the graffiti. Now, gangs and other anti social **heads are using accoustic terrorism (traveling bands of cars with very loud car stereos/sound devices) and vandalism for attention. Along with 1)working with the Quality of Life Unit and local police 2)jotting down & reporting license plate numbers of the noise making law breakers (because the Police can’t be all the time) 3)using the media (like the coverage of the vandalism at Hopkins School) to increase the communities awareness of what is going on, we will be taking an active stand in this fight.

By Katie

March 22, 2007 7:04 AM | Link to this

Graffiti declining??? I think not. I see more and more of it and I don’t see the City of Norcross doing their part to clean it up. I live off Beaver Ruin, on Huddersfield Way. Graffiti is everywhere, on every stop sign, fence and public utility box. They need to catch these little bastards and make them paint over their own graffiti during busy traffic hours so they are humiliated in public for their actions. Norcross really needs to step up on this gang activity, it’s beginning to not only look like a ghetto but feel like one too. These little bastards don’t pay taxes, they’re too young to own homes. They are destroying areas that others pay for. And they have the nerve to walk around all tough looking. I laugh at them.

By Katie

March 22, 2007 7:31 AM | Link to this

Oh, I forgot. Pam, I do report graffiti, all the time. However, how much of my time should be devoted to calling city officials who are being paid to keep on top of these things? They can drive around also and look for graffiti. That’s what our tax dollars are for (in part). I have them on my speed dial—which is pretty sad I think. I wouldn’t go so far as Mark to say it’s due to particular races, but I do think it is in part due to particular classes and mentalities of people. Ghetto is as ghetto does.

By Roy Whitehead

March 22, 2007 7:34 AM | Link to this

What your story failed to mention is that over 90% of the graffiti in Snellville was done by one 14 year-old and he has been arrested and charged with all counts.

By John Dunn

March 22, 2007 8:13 AM | Link to this

Graffiti is being beaten back along US 78, regardless the comments of the “gentleman” from Snellville above. I travel the road several times a day and, frankly, it’s kept pretty clean. Recently an out-building at the abandoned Dodge dealership was covered in gang graffiti. I called the county, the CID, Clean and Beautiful, and the real estate agent listed on the sign of the Dodge property. The agent himself was mortified and had it painted over immediately. If businessowners and property managers take care of the problem quickly, they will cease to be targets.

By Pam

March 22, 2007 8:33 AM | Link to this

Katie:

To answer your question about how much of your time should be devoted to reporting the crimes, I look at this way. How much does your property value mean to you? How much does a safe environment for your kids and family mean to you? That’s what I think about everytime I report these vandals. It means THAT much to me, I’m totally devoted to stop this and it has worked in my area of Lawrenceville.

Also, you don’t have to call. You can go to the Clean and Beautiful web site at www.gwinnettcb.org and make a report in less than five minutes.

We have to take back Gwinnett! To everyone, let’s stop running. Fight for your property!

By Katie

March 22, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this

My property value is important but we’re about ready to sell. No changes in 7 years and streets are looking worse and worse. gun fire at night, huge drug busts down the street from us, enough is enough. There aren’t enough police to patrol the neighborhoods and half the residents don’t speak english enough to form watch groups. And their children are the ones (of course there are others too) who are destroying our neighborhood. Let Norcross become one big nasty, dirty, ghetto. Gwinnexico is winning by a land slide. I don’t have the time to spend calling city officials or going on line daily to complain.

By Mark

March 22, 2007 10:26 AM | Link to this

First, I want to tell the person that edited my post to kiss my a*. I have a right to voice my opinion on this blog just like everyone else. Just because most of you are too stupid or blind to realize the REAL reason Graffiti and crime is up in Snellville, and I have the guts to tell you why, doesn’t give you the right to censor my statements. Justify it in your own ignorant way then. You’ll soon learn that I am right.

By Chuck

March 22, 2007 11:27 AM | Link to this

We don’t wait for someone else to fix problems like these - unless there’s a media camera around, GCB will be slow on the draw. We’ve often painted graffiti over while the smell of the spray paint was still hanging heavy in the air. Between that and our zoning compliace efforts, my bet is that we’ve chased quite a few of them into other areas, where they’re just now being noticed. Let’s chase them all over the county line!

By WHAT THE HECK

March 22, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this

Mark, Kudos to you for speaking to truth.

By repost

March 22, 2007 2:12 PM | Link to this

I notice it spreading due to the influx of n**** and filthy mexicans to Snellville. Graffiti is a sign that your neighborhood is declining because of the filth moving in.

By Truth bot

March 23, 2007 6:02 AM | Link to this

Mark, did you know that trash also comes in the color ‘white’?? You forgot to mention white people in your comment. Ever heard of white trailer trash? Hell, go to Walmart sometime and just look around.

By MC

March 25, 2007 3:45 PM | Link to this

Actually I used to live in a Snellville subdivision where white kids would leave graffiti around. I visited recently and it’s gone.