We received a tip this morning that murals along Clarion Alley were vandalized, and after checking them out in person we found that a total of four murals had yellow paint sprayed over parts of the murals. The ‘Narratives of Displacement’ piece was the main target and every face on it was sprayed with yellow paint.
Some are pink, some are blue and some are orange. Some have halos over their heads and some are surrounded by stars and hearts of bliss. Some are tall, some are short, some are fat, some are skinny. Some even say, “Plug me in.” They hang out on mailboxes, walls, street poles, newsstands and wooden boards. In the Mission, they’re...
The amount of “litter and grime” observed citywide dropped year to year, possibly due to improved response rates, three new street sweepers, and new mechanical sidewalk cleaners featuring steam cleaning units. The report also references the city’s Pit Stop program, which provides public toilets, syringe disposal, and pet waste bags – but perhaps most importantly, includes a staff to man the...
For the second time in less than two weeks, a tagger has scrawled over a mural of ten stenciled sea turtles on the wall of a Pacific Gas & Electric substation at the corner of 19th and San Carlos streets – the mural was first defaced with the words “Latino Art Only.” Six of the turtles were slashed with paint...
The brightly colored Vida Apartments on Mission Street were attacked sometime last week when someone smashed the condo building’s front windows and badly cracked four panes of glass before fleeing the scene. Video of the incident, seemingly filmed by someone involved, was posted online shortly after the attack and shows someone in jeans and a dark hoodie walking calmly up to the apartment’s...
Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor David Campos will be speaking today, Friday, as part of a three-day event by the international graffiti group Mind Above Matter. Lee and Campos will be speaking at the Mission Cultural Center to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the book Spraycan Art, the first to document the spread of New York-style graffiti worldwide in the late 1980s....
The office of District Attorney George Gascón announced Monday it would be charging Andrew Yarbrough, a prolific tagger apprehended by Mission District police officers last week, with ten felony counts of vandalism as well as 19 misdemeanor counts of vandalism. Yarbrough, whose is allegedly the vandal behind the tag “Cryst,” has spray painted his work throughout the city—on MUNI shelters, businesses,...
Friends of stabbing victim Ronnie Goodman, 20, crowded around a colorful altar in his honor at 24th and Capp street late Friday afternoon. They passed a bundle of burning sage around and remembered a vibrant young street artist who always seemed wise beyond his years. “He was just a good-hearted dude,” said one friend to universal agreement. “If he was...
Dozens of community artists wielding paint brushes and spray cans celebrated street art at the 18th Annual Urban Youth Arts Festival on Saturday. The festival, organized by Precita Eyes, invited artists of all ages to express themselves on 1,000 square feet of portable wall space at Precita Park on Precita Avenue near Folsom Street. Like street art itself, the canvases are ephemeral—they’re recycled from year...
San Francisco 311 has a mobile app you can use to report all manner of urban annoyances, from graffiti to abandoned vehicles. The free app is available for phones or tablets running Apple iOS or Android, and is recommended by organizations like the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, which advertises it for reporting potholes and other hazards. What can you do...
SFGate writes today about British street artist Banksy and the campaign to save his well-known graffiti work in San Francisco. The once-fringe artist has reached growing audiences in recent years after the release of “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” his Oscar-nominated documentary film. In October 2013, Banksy again gained mass attention with a month long residency in New York. But in 2010,...
It’s confirmed: the Mission has a lot of trash and graffiti — at least, it has the most people complaining about it. In fact, in 2013 the Mission had more complaints about these issues, among others, than any other neighborhood in the city. Using 311 call data provided by the city’s open data program, Mission Local tabulated that Missionites call the...
