A couple of weeks ago CTV contacted the MHBPNA executive because there were reports of rampant graffiti in the neighbourhood. And Banksy was not the perpetrator. No, these were rather pedestrian efforts by some folks taking advantage of the lax security around the homes slated for demolition. 

We will admit parts of Weber Street looked a little tawdry but it also gave us a kind of “urban street cred” which everyone knew was going to be short lived since the buildings would be torn down quite soon.

CTV made a news item out of it and among those quoted were our president Lane Burman and our city councillor Dan Glenn Graham. 

The news report can still be found here.

Lane also joked that he thought we deserved better graffiti since the examples we got were pretty lame. But those comments were not used since CTV was building up the negative aspects. Dan Glenn Graham demanded something be done but the people interviewed who lived in the area all said they didn’t like the graffiti but the buildings were going to be torn down soon so it really didn’t matter. Their attitude could be summarized by a shrug.

The story might have ended there, as some filler for a slow news day, but shortly thereafter, the Region saw fit to protect us from viewing those images and covered them up with plywood and paint.

So we, and the commuting citizens of our region, were saved from the graffiti for about two days until this happened:

So now, no more graffiti. We thank the Region for looking out for us, but if someone knew the houses would be torn down in two days, did they have to spend the money on labour and plywood to cover it up for such a short time? 

So now we know what can be accomplished by a slow news day and a very modest amount of outrage. 

TP