Didn't take long

This house used to be painted white, and it was covered in graffiti on both the front and side. A few weeks ago, a fresh coat of pink paint was applied.

Here I was, thinking that painting over the existing graffiti might deter vandals from striking again. Well, as Canada Bay Council point out in their newly released Graffiti Strategy, if you leave graffiti untreated for 2 weeks, there is a 100% chance it will come back. However, if you get rid of it within 2 days, there is only a 10% chance it will come back.

This is not some anonymous public structure, like a letter box, or an abandoned building, or a hoarding, or a business. This is someone's home. Those windows are someone's lounge room.

There are those out there that think graffiti is a victimless crime, and that we should just accept it. My guess is that the people advocating that idea have never had graffiti applied numerous times to the wall outside their lounge room, or had to put up with drunken yahoos carrying on at night every weekend in the park just over the road.

In their world, graffiti always happens to someone else.

Eavesdropping - again

From time to time I'll overhear something on the bus that piques my interest. 98% of the generally one sided conversations that you hear are as inane as listening to someone reading out a shopping list or describing how to disassemble a carburetor. But when a couple of feral looking teenagers sit down in front of you, it's time to perk up and listen in. That might seem nosy, but the volume that they interact at means that generally anyone sitting on the bus next door would be able to hear them, even if they were wearing a set of noise reducing headphones.

The latest pair to deafen all and sundry in the vicinity were on their way to the Five Dock Park skate ramp. I was coming home from work early, and it was a school day, yet they were on the bus at 1pm. From the content of their chatter, I discovered that they should have been at school, but their attendance was patchy at best.

After a few minutes of talking about vandalising this and that, they moved on to complaining about a certain pole in the skate park. According to them, the pole is placed in such a way to inhibit certain manouveres, much to their annoyance and distaste.

After describing the stupidity of the pole, they then started discussing ways and means of removing it - sawing it off with a hacksaw, bending it back and forth until it snapped at the base and finally angle grinding the stump out of the concrete.

Clearly, the two of them were incapable of actually doing any of this - it was just wishful thinking on their behalf. I felt like leaning over the seat and telling them how to contact Council and how to make a request to have the pole removed - but then they started talking about wrecking private property with spray paint, so I left them to stew in their discontent, happy in knowing that their skating will forever be marred by that pole.

I'm sure Council would remove said pole if a reasonable case for its amputation was made via the proper channels - the proper channels being sending an email to the address which can be found on the Council website, or phoning the number listed on the Council website, or writing a letter to Council. However, such simple actions seemed to be far beyond their ken - particularly the task of writing a legible and comprehensible request.

And that's just tough.

Third time lucky

Over the last few weeks, I've tried several times to get someone to take an interest in fixing a listing light pole along the City West Link. The pole looks like it was hit by a truck back in early August, which tipped it back somewhat as well as twisting it through 90 degrees. The pole appears to be slowly tilting towards the water, and it would be slightly embarrassing to those concerned if the foundations gave way one day and the pole crashed down across the running track and landed in the harbour.

After reporting it twice to Energy Australia and once to the RTA, I have finally received a response from Energy Australia saying that they will attend to it within 12 working days, which is their standard service level etc etc. I hope the pole stays upright that long.

The City West Link is one of Sydney's main roads. In any given week, dozens of RTA and Energy Australia employees must drive along it, passing the light pole in question. That includes those going to and from work, and those driving around in company vehicles during working hours. Did any of them bother to report it? No, because that would be somebody else's problem.

RTA vs Energy Australia; somebody else's problem

Five weeks ago, I noticed this broken light pole along the City West Link in Haberfield. A car or truck appears to have run off the road, colliding with the pole with enough force to push it back, twist it around through 90 degrees and snap the light fitting off the top of the pole.

I reported it to Energy Australia, and let a month go by. Nothing happened, so I reported it again.

My compadre has since suggested that these poles are taken care of by the RTA rather than Energy Australia (who look after about 98% of the light poles in Sydney).

I've now reported it to the RTA as well.

Energy Australia have been pretty hit and miss lately. In some cases, they'll clean a kiosk within a few days of me reporting it. Then a swag won't be cleaned at all. I don't know whether their system is "eating" a bunch of my reports, or some other gremlin is loose in the bowels of their bureaucracy.

If this is an RTA problem, why didn't Energy Australia make the effort to either:

a. Pass it on to the RTA, or

b. Tell me that it was not their problem, and that I'd have to report it to the RTA.

Like I said, very hit and miss at present. I have this feeling they've just said, "Somebody else's problem" and binned my report.

Getting busy again

Vandals must be fair weather creatures. At the first sign of a bit of cold, they disappear indoors and don't emerge for 4 or 5 months. However, once things warm up, they emerge from their caves and go to work with a vengeance.

I've reported a couple of Energy Australia kiosks twice over the last few weeks. They get cleaned up quickly, but are then hit again within a short period of time. I'm starting to forget which ones I have reported and which ones I haven't - the Energy Australia website sends you an email when you report a problem, but it doesn't include a description of your report in the email, so I can't tie reference numbers to assets. Small problem, but annoying when you are making dozens of reports.

For instance, I reported a light pole along the City West Link that had been smashed up by what appeared to have been a truck. It still hasn't been fixed, and I can't tell if that report has simply been lost in the Energy Australia system, or whether they take months to fix mangled light poles.

The playgrounds around this area have also been hit every week for the last few weeks. Council is very good about cleaning playgrounds - the mess usually seems to be gone the day after I report it. I might get around to putting in a report at 11pm at night, and it will be gone by the time I am on my way home the following day. There's no flies on our Council in that regard. However, the message isn't getting through to the parents of the young kids that use these playgrounds that if they report a problem to Council, Council will fix it.

That's not just graffiti - that includes worn out or broken equipment in the playground, or broken safety fences and gates. Council even replaced a rather holey shade cloth over a playground that I reported during winter.

Another week goes by...

Spring is here, and the vandals have emerged from their winter hibernation and have started stalking in their old habitats. After a few months of not seeing much to report, the first week of Spring has taken me back to my old levels of activity. There have been letter boxes, Energy Australia kiosks and RTA assets galore to report, all freshly covered in the colours of the new season.

The true mark of the turning of the seasons is the reappearance of graffiti on the grandstand in Five Dock Park. During the warmer months, the area around the grandstand is a favoured mating ground for the younger members of the species. They congregate, engage in drinking rituals, attempt to chat up the opposite sex and then leave their markings on the grandstand, much as dogs mark their territory by cocking a leg. The first tags of Spring appeared after Saturday night, perhaps after a festival of the equinox.

I can see a busy few months ahead of me.