Canada Bay Nazis

This is a factory building wall that backs onto a local sports ground.  This section appears to be dedicated to the local Nazi party members.

I wonder if that is sufficient to get this cleaned up?

Bring on the noise

Damaged noise barriers along the M4 motorway.  Someone has kicked out four of the panels, which are lying behind the fence.

Reported to the RTA.  Just senseless, mindless vandalism.  These panels are also a favourite site for daubing graffiti tags.

What story does this trash tell?

It's amazing what you can find when walking along some Sydney streets.  Here we have an abandoned suitcase with a small doona of some sort, along with the detritus of a meal from KFC.  I wasn't game to lift the doona up to see what was underneath, but you have to wonder what led to this sad little pile of rubbish being dumped beneath a motorway.

The rain in drain falls mainly on the rubbish

A snapshot of some of the rubbish that has been building up in the drain underneath the M4. It looks like a proper deluge is required to dislodge this muck and flush it downstream into one of the rubbish traps that stops this running into the harbour.

The sides of the drain are littered with rubbish like this for kilometre after kilometre.  A great job for someone doing community service.

The small things

Canada Bay Council was formed about a decade ago by the merger of the Municipality of Concord and Drummoyne Council.  You can still find relics of the two old councils around the place - generally in the form of forgotten, worn out signage.  Signage has a finite life before the elements or vandals reduce lettering and symbols into an incoherent mess.  As most of these signs were emplaced before the introduction of GIS systems and computerised asset management, most councils are probably unaware that they exist.  They remain in place, unloved and unread (or unreadable) until someone comes along and says, "Fix this or give it the flick".

In the first instance here, this sign has clearly had it and needs replacing or removing entirely.

This nearby sign reads "Sid Richards Playing Fields", although you would never know it because all the paint has peeled off the lettering that has been inscribed in the planks.  A bit of paint on the lettering will do the trick.

Both have been reported to Council with a suggestion to remove/replace and touch up.

Slack and useless

There are around half a dozen of these electricity supply cabinets underneath the M4 motorway.  Most of them have graffiti on them. Helpfully, they have a very handy asset tag on them that tells you everything you need to know in order to report this to Energy Australia.

Except that most of them have obviously been vandalised previously, and whoever has come along to paint over the graffiti has painted straight over the tag!  That's just absolutely slack and useless.  I guess a contractor will get the blame, as usual.

Teaching kids how not to respect our flag

Auburn North Public School and their flag.

It's tattered, battered, faded and torn.  It looks like it was run up the flag pole a decade ago and forgotten about.

Is this how we teach our kids to respect our flag?

By contrast, here's a flag being flown from a fire truck.  It's fresh, clean and undamaged.  I bet the difference is that the fire fighters paid for this flag out of their own pockets, and they look after it because they respect it.  By contrast, the school was probably given the flag and told to put it up.  

If Auburn North don't want to fly our flag properly, I'd prefer they take it down and leave it down.  Better to not fly it at all instead of disrespecting it through neglect.

What do Housing Commission staff do all day?

Back in March, I went past a Housing Commission complex in Wareemba and noticed that graffiti had been sprayed on the wall in one of the entrances.

Much to my amazement (not), it was still there today.

How often are these places inspected?  Do the residents ever bother to report problems like this?  If they are reported, are they ever fixed?  

Failure to negotiate

A vehicle has clearly failed to make it around this corner in Concord and it's crossed to the wrong side of the road, mounted the kerb and taken out this street sign.  There are skid marks (out of photo to the right) that suggest a high speed manoeuvre gone wrong.

Ironically, just around the corner in the next street, several power poles have these signs attached to them, which look locally made - "Stop dangerous driving in our street".

I've reported the flattened sign to Council.  Not much I can do about idiot drivers though.

Your tax dollars at work

I spotted another tranche of illegal posters today - this time under the motorway in Concord West.  The wall in question is owned by the RTA - a state government department.  The posters in question were commissioned by the Department of Health and Aging - a federal government department.

Once again, we have a case of where our taxes are being used to produce something that results in illegal bill posting and littering.  Posters like this have appeared at other locations in Sydney, so this is not a one-off occurrence.

If a poster is not removed by Council or the property owner, the glue eventually loses its traction and the poster falls down.  It then becomes street litter, perhaps blowing away to end up in a park, or washing into a storm water drain (which it could clog), or washing down that drain to end up in a stream, creek, river, harbour or the ocean.  In other words, posters are litter waiting to happen.  A poster that size could choke a dolphin.  They are not a good thing environmentally.  

If that's the case, why is a federal government department using our money to do this to us? We get stung twice - once to produce and erect the poster, and once to clean it off.  

Given that I got an absurdly week brush-off from the state Department of the Environment and Climate Change, I have taken this issue up with the Shadow Minister for Health and Aging.  Has a federal Minister really approved a program that involves illegality (bill posting) and environmental damage (littering)?  How could a government that is supposedly so concerned with the environment (climate change) do such a thing?  If Canada Bay Council decides it wants to fine the person responsible, will the Minister pay the fine (and not charge it to expenses - I mean pay it out of their own pocket)?

Pathetic, bureaucratic rubbish

Back in March, I was going through Auburn when I spotted some posters that had been put up illegally on roadside power poles.  After doing a bit of web browsing when I got home, I found that the posters belonged to the Nature Conservation Council.  The NCC received $1.3 million in grants and sponsorship in 2007/2008, and although a breakdown of that income is not readily available, it's clear that around 80% of it's funding comes from the taxpayer, presumably funneled through the Department of Environment and Climate Change.

The problem with posters is that when they eventually fall down, they either blow up and down the street as rubbish, or they clog storm water drains, or they get washed down storm water drains into our creeks, rivers and harbours.  Putting up posters is a form of littering, and I did not think it appropriate that an organisation devoted to environment causes should be littering!  It's as bad as them dumping their unsorted rubbish in a park, or in the harbour.  

It's even worse when that organisation is funded by the taxpayer.  The taxpayer gets stung twice - once to pay for the posters, and a second time to clean up the mess afterwards.  To me, that's a shocking form of waste and abuse of taxpayer's funds.

I emailed Irene Simms, the Mayor of Auburn, and got the following response straight away:

Thanks for your email. I agree about the eyesore that bill posting presents, but my information is that we must catch the culprits in the act of bill posting.

We cannot assume (although to me there are only 2 likely sources, the venue or the 'act' ) that the venue is responsible for the bill posting.

I would be happy to discuss further as this is a pet grievance of mine.

So it seems pretty clear from that email that Auburn Council are less than impressed, and would prosecute the perpetrators if they caught them in the act.

I then wrote to the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change:

Dear Minister

 

I have attached a photo of one of a number of posters that have been put up illegally around the entry ramps to the Western Motorway at Silverwater Road.  The posters direct the reader to http://www.saveourlastsharks.org.au/, which then redirects to the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.

The NCC’s annual report notes that up to 85% of its funding comes from state government grants – and most, if not all of those grants presumably come from your department. 

Under the NSW Protection of the Environment Operations Act, bill posting is considered an illegal form of pollution. Councils can issue fines directly to the venue responsible for producing the poster. 

I request that you write to the NCC and instruct them to immediately cease illegal bill posting, and to remove any posters that have been put up to date.  I am amazed that an environmental group like this would indulge in polluting the environment in this manner, and that taxpayer funds would be used to erect illegal, polluting material.   

This is a disgrace, and it warrants immediate investigation.  At the very least, all grants to the NCC should be suspended until they have made good the damage that they have caused, and further taxpayer funds should not be used to effect a cleanup.  I am going to write to the council responsible for this area and request that the NCC be prosecuted for these activities, and once again, taxpayer funds should not be used to pay any fines that may be levied against the NCC or its officers.

I had to chase up Carmel Tebbutt's office twice over a 3 month period before I finally got a response, which I have posted below:

What a load of rubbish!  And note that they refer to the NCC's "alleged" bill posting.  If the NCC didn't put them up, then who did?  A group of shark-hating maniacs who were trying to discredit the NCC?

Essentially, they are trying to get off the hook by insinuating that Auburn Council might permit this sort of activity.  Well, Auburn Council don't, and the Mayor tells me that they have been handing out fines of late and are cracking down on the practice. If they had bothered to check with Auburn Council before writing me this letter, they could have found that out for themselves. 

I've asked the Mayor to write to the Department (or the Minister) to explain the position of Auburn Council, and to tell them to cease and desist!

In short, the Department of the Environment and Climate Change is going to take no action against the NCC for littering.  The rivers of taxpayer funded grants will continue to flow uninterrupted, and no one will be punished.  So much for the Minister for the Environment actually caring for the environment!

The pain of using contractors

NSW Maritime got a run in the paper today over a poorly placed sign in Balmain.  Their excuse - contractors installed it.

I don't blame the contractor.  I blame a poorly drafted statement of work, or unclear work instructions, or poor management by whoever engaged the contractor.  

A contractor will only do what they are told or paid to do.  In most cases, they are not being employed to think, and they may have only the barest idea of departmental or company policies and standards.

I have seen a few examples of badly performed graffiti removal lately, and I think it is all down to badly briefed contractors.  RailCorp eventually painted over graffiti on a bridge in Leichhardt, but the painter failed to paint over about 25% of the visible graffiti.  I presume what they missed was not in their statement of work.

Energy Australia employs contractors to paint over graffiti on their substations, which they generally do quite well, but they never tell them to remove the graffiti from signage on those substations.  You often end up with a nice, freshly painted wall with graffiti-enhanced signage plastered all over it.  The point is to remove all the graffiti - 100% of it - not just the graffiti on the brickwork.

Quick off the mark

I have to give full credit to Energy Australia this week for being quick off the mark at cleaning a kiosk that I reported on Monday. By Thursday, the graffiti was gone - that's a very rapid response for a utility (and it wasn't even offensive graffiti).

However, I do still wish that they would encourage their own staff to report graffiti, rather than relying on members of the public. They get an A+ for fast removal and an F for internal reporting.

Conversation with two vandals

Actually, it was not a conversation at all. I eavesdropped on a pair of them whilst riding the bus through a succession of inner western suburbs. From the snippets that I picked up, both were at TAFE, and they had a good idea of which vandals had tagged or sprayed various walls and buildings between Camperdown and Leichhardt.

I was pleased to see that they also puzzled over the provenance of a tag on a bus shelter, trying to work out what the illegible scrawl was supposed to mean. They couldn't work it out, so their final decision on the matter was, "that shit is fucking gay".

To steal some lines from "Batman":

Alfred Pennyworth: When I was in Burma, a long time ago, my friends and I were working for the local Government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders, bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being
raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. We were asked to take care of the problem, so we started looking for the stones. But after six months, we couldn't find anyone who had traded with him. One day I found a child playing with a ruby as big as a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing the stones away.

Bruce Wayne: Then why steal them?

Alfred Pennyworth: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

They laughed and hooted and hollered as the bus travelled down the road and they spied tags on this structure or that. One delivery truck that was covered in tags was especially well regarded, as in, "Somebody really fucked that shit up".

They delighted in destruction. They really appeared to just want to watch the world burn.
Their conversation was about 50% "fuck", as in every second word was a variation on "fuck". Those passengers around me simply pushed their iPod earphones more tightly into their ears and tried to ignore it. I tried hard to look like I was not listening in.

Both looked like late teenagers, and one had what appeared to be a large, red catfish tattoo covering one forearm. They were dressed in what I would call "expensive, chic, urban slackerwear". Fashionable footwear, chunky silver chain, brand name hoodies and shorts. They did not strike me as struggling in any meaningful way, yet I wondered how they were managing to work their way through a TAFE course. They did not strike me as the studious type.

Until seeing these two on the bus, I had always had a sneaking suspicion that a certain number of vandals must get around by bus - how else would one explain the repeated tagging of bus shelters and nearby signage and structures? This just confirmed it.

Listening to them was an instructive exercise - the opportunity to observe them in a completely uninhibited environment. They were not putting on a front, and there was no one there to protect them or mitigate their behaviour (ie, as in sitting with a solicitor in a Police interview room). I got to see them raw and unedited and unfiltered.

It strikes me that when people like this are pulled up for their crimes, they know all too well how to play the game - the way to act, the things to say, the means of gaining sympathy. If social workers and judges and politicians could see them in their natural environment, they might have a different view of their motives, personalities and characters.

Taking out the trash

Hang around the waterfront long enough, and you might get to see one of these NSW Maritime boats cruising past on its way to pick up a load of rubbish from the rubbish traps at the end of the canals that empty into the harbour.

This canal runs under the City West Link and empties into the harbour at Haberfield.  I walk through the park that runs along the canal on a regular basis, and the amount of floating debris in the canal has to be seen to be believed.  If it wasn't for these traps, you'd be able to walk across the harbour on the rubbish that washes down from further upstream.

This is the second time I've seen this being done, but I didn't manage to get any photos first time around.  The first time I saw a trap being emptied, it was full to the brim.  You can get a good idea of how big the traps are by comparing this one to the deckhands.  I don't know if NSW Maritime goes through the garbage and analyses it, but to me, it appears to be about 90% plastic bottles.

Movement at the station

It's only three short weeks ago that a fairly good bit of work appeared at this site on the approaches to the Gladesville Bridge.  Alas, now it is gone, covered by a slab of black paint. Even worse, whoever painted over it failed to get rid of the ridiculously bad bits of "artwork" next to it.  If they had to paint over something, why couldn't they have eliminated the scribbles and kept the art?

Unless we can expect something new and exciting to appear here soon? 

I don't know whether this is a legal site or not, but I've seen a bloke working on it in broad daylight as I've driven past.  Either it is legal, or it's being done by the most brazen artists in the hood.

Unfurling a new flag

Our local Police station was proudly flying a fresh, new flag today.  It appears my occasional grumbling has paid off, even if it did take some months to get a result.  I got a kick out of seeing a flag that was not tattered, faded and unloved flying at full mast.

I was going past the station around sunset, so I stopped and stuck my head in.  When the Constable on duty asked me how he could help me, I pointed out that it was sunset and it was time to lower the flag.

He asked me to repeat myself, which I did.

I think he was quite stunned to see that a member of the public would bother to walk into the station to tell them that.

He replied that he was aware of the protocol, and said that they couldn't always take it down - presumably due to resourcing problems and other more pressing matters blah blah blah.  I don't mind it not being taken down from time to time, but I'm not going to stand for it not being taken down for months on end.  I guess I will just have to front up at the station every day at sunset and repeat my mantra - the flag will be lowered at sunset.  After a few visits, they should get the point.

Murals

Are murals a way to keep idle hands and evil minds occupied?

I've been to Bondi and seen the "murals" along the waterfront.  Some are reasonable to look at, but most display a serious lack of artistic talent.  The problem most of these "artists" have is that no one has ever told them that they are no good; that they are failures when it comes to daubing paint on a surface.

I'm a fan of old fashioned murals, like the one here (scroll down to the third photo).  It is well executed, and it has meaning to a wide range of people.  

And it's legal, which is a big help.

I was scrolling through some old posts tonight and came across a photo of the Post Office in Concord that I took back in January showing graffiti on the front wall.

I never bothered to report that to Australia Post - until today.

Australia Post staff have been walking in and out of that Post Office for nearly 6 months since I took that photo, and none of them appear to have bothered to notice or report the graffiti.

So much for civic pride, and pride in their organisation.

They really don't care

Over the last month, I've reported about a dozen vandalised kiosks (those green substations that lurk in suburban backstreets) to Energy Australia.  Energy Australia are generally quite good at arranging to have them cleaned - within a week or two, most are back to being boringly dull green.

My constant complaint is that Energy Australia has staff driving around all day in Energy Australia vehicles, and a reasonable percentage of these staff must drive past vandalised kiosks and substations.  I have even had a chat with one bloke who parked next to one to do his paperwork.  My impression is that as far as these mobile Energy Australia staff are concerned, vandalism of Energy Australia assets is not their concern.  It is somebody else's problem. Someone in another department or division, possibly in another building.  Definitely someone that they never come in contact with during their working hours.

Just to drive this point home, I photographed this Energy Australia truck recently in Canada Bay.  It appears to be parked at the home of an EA employee.  Assuming this employee works out of the Homebush depot, they have to drive past at least 3 regularly vandalised kiosks to get to work, and the same 3 on the way home.  How many instances of vandalism do you think they have reported over the last year?

I can safely say "zero", since the only time those kiosks get cleaned is when I report them.

Why is it so hard to encourage staff to notice and report this kind of stuff?  Do they have any pride in the organisation that employs them?

New kid on the block

We welcome a new name to the NOTSEP pantheon of vandals, delinquents and taggers.  This one goes by the tag of "rotor", along with a number of variants on that.

When I first spotted the tag the week before last, I spent 15 minutes walking around a few streets to see if I could discern a pattern - and here are the tags that I found, plotted thanks to Google Maps.  The tag on the far right is near the skate ramp in Five Dock Park.  On the far left, we have the Five Dock shopping centre.  It looks to me like rotor has done a lap between those two sites - a trip from 'food' to 'fun'.

Rotor left his tag on a number of publicly owned assets, including those owned by the Council, Australia Post and Energy Australia.  

The map above should help explain why I have been so keen to get all utilities to report vandalism to the Police - if all graffiti incidents end up in a centralised database that has a mapping capability, you can start to discern patterns in the behaviour of particular vandals.  

In this instance, I am pretty sure that until recently, the only spots on the above map would have been those at Council owned sites, because only Council was collecting information on vandalism and reporting it.  Without a full information picture, you'd never be able to spot a pattern of behaviour.  The only reason I can show you where I think rotor walked (or rode his skateboard) is because I took the time to walk around and have a look for his trail.

Collecting information is crucial, and so is collecting a full set of information.

Update

I haven't posted much of late because I haven't anything new to say.  I could post the same boring, repetitive posts about reporting this and cleaning that, but I don't see any point.  For instance, over the last two weeks, I've reported 5 vandalised Energy Australia kiosks, 3 vandalised post boxes and 3 vandalised RTA traffic light cabinets.  There's nothing new in that - it's just a matter of keeping an eye on these sorts of assets as I drive or walk around each week.

One thing that doesn't change is the behaviour of the grubs who choose to dine along the foreshore at Wymston Parade in Wareemba.  The lovely view across the water is always spoiled by grubs who can't be bothered walking 15 feet to put their cigarette packets, coffee cups, fast foods containers and drink bottles in the bin.

The rubbish on the road is dropped there from cars.  A car pulls up, the driver and passenger gorge themselves, then the open their doors and drop the litter on the road.  No effort is made to walk to the bin clearly visible in this photo.  As I said - grubs.