Residents of Palm Coast’s C-Section are concerned about recurring graffiti that’s been re-appearing on bridges on Colorado Drive and Colchester Lane, after city crews painted over a spate of graffiti there last year.
“You see it under the bridges. Now on Colorado, it’s on top of the bridge,” Paul Vargo of Colorado Drive, told the council. “It’s from one end of the bridge to the other on both sides. You go down the other side of the bridge on the west side and it’s on the telephone poles. It’s on utility covers over on Colchester, and the porta potties.” Merely painting over it, he said, is a band-aid approach.
Unlike anti-Semitic graffiti targeting Jewish or Israeli business owners in Flagler Beach late last year, or white-nationalist street graffiti years ago in Palm Coast’s L-Section, or more recently at Belle Terre Park, the C-Section graffiti appears to be more neutral–graffiti for the sake of graffiti. Based on pictures taken by city public works crews, it is almost entirely illegible, using black, blue and red paint to make shapes that individually look like letters, but that don’t seem to form comprehensible words.
While crews have to remove obscene graffiti from time to time at city parks, whoever is doing this in the C-Section isn’t so minded. While some graffiti can be quite artistic, with a long line of famous artists behind it, that’s not the case here.
Two C-Section residents addressed the council about it Tuesday, saying they’d filed reports through the city’s portal. One resident spoke with an emotional edge in their voice: “It took an awful lot for me to come up here, an awful lot,” Joy Barr told the council. “I asked them two years ago, please. When you see the graffiti, the reason why it’s there is because you’re not taking care of the problem.” The turn-around time from the time a complaint is filed to the time the issue is addressed, she said, is too long. Her own request has been pending, she said.
A city spokesperson checked the city’s portal on Wednesday and found no such complaint, but said code enforcement crews had been dispatched to the bridges to address the issue, if it had recurred. Yet Barr was insistent: she informed a city official on Jan. 9. Since then, four locations have been sprayed with graffiti, she said. The city official told her it was not gang related. The city’s spokesperson confirmed that the Sheriff’s Office ruled out gang-related graffiti. “It’s not art. It’s vandalism,” Barr said.
Council member Ed Danko said he was meeting with Sheriff Rick Staly Friday and will discuss potential measures to address the vandalism, “because it is becoming a blight in our community.”
The location of the graffiti may have been cleverly chosen by whoever is spraying: there are no traffic cameras in the area. “We’re looking at other mechanisms, cameras, things like that to be able to look at it closely and stop it and prevent it–more preventative measures rather than reactive,” Council member Theresa Pontieri said.
Jd says
This guy smallest town o have ever lived in. I have to say you can’t go anywhere without a camera watching your every move! This I such a waste of time and money. Here’s an idea how about the deputies stop pulling cover anything and everything? Stop sitting in the median for hours on end! How about a patrol car drive through the back streets of the C section? I have been here for 2 years and have not seen a police car in my neighborhood. This sheriff is ridiculous. They don’t even have this technology in big cities I mean really. A town of just over 100,000 residents do you really need all those boats? What about your mini tank? Why????
Mike says
Yeah, really. I’m paying $100 a week in property taxes so 200 no-necks who worship their mothers can have 550 brake horsepower.
Also, 3 Jews are arrested every day for self-inflicted “anti-Semitism”. Also 3 times a day: the police kill a citizen and, in each state, a white woman is raped by a Negro.
The Bob says
I’m sick of everything being called anti-semitic. It’s like being called racist ,nobody cares!
How many countries have they been kicked out of ?
TR says
You have any proof on your statistics to prove they are correct? If not then just because you stated them doesn’t make them true. Or is your comment just sarcasm?
melly says
Oh please, they’ll put up cameras and catch the little malefactors and then their mommies and daddies will pitch fits because their Darling Little Johnnies and Janes would never do such a thing. And then nothing will happen except some more paint-overs. Give me a break!
TR says
Cameras were complained about at the traffic lights so much the city took them down. Now they want to put cameras up to catch a bunch of punks that spray paint parts of the city. That will be nothing more than a waste of more tax payers money IMO. Think about it, thousands of dollars spent to put in cameras (after thousands of money spent for a survey) in a certain part of the city. These punks will just spray paint the lenses first before painting their gang tag on whatever they want. Not to mention, if they put the cameras up where they can’t reach them. The cameras will be video from above downward and won’t see their faces. These punks will most likely wear hoodies and/or face masks exposing just their eyes to make it impossible to identify.
How about the citizens on patrol for that area go out and patrol the streets in the C section. If the city decides to install camera to the C section, then let the people living in the C section pay for them. But I can guarantee that as soon as the cameras are installed these punks will move to another neighborhood and start marking that neighborhood up. Then what, do the same thing with the cameras? they will just move again.
James says
Proactivity is a must. Once they’re caught. Put them on litter pick-up patrol during the hot summer months.
MeToo says
I like this idea!
Chris says
This is now Orlando! Wait till all the gangs move in next ! Bigger is never better for a city.
TR says
You must be new, The gangs are already here. Who do you think did the painting? I’ve been here since 1989 and have seen markings of gangs with paint all over town for years.
Jeff Miller says
When I moved here in 2007, you would of never seen this. Palm Coast was a nice place to live but not anymore. Way to many people here, way to much traffic, rude people, aggressive drivers and way too many storage shed buildings. Well said my peace. Keep building Palm Coast.
shark says
The simple solution for Staly would be to get his deputies off of I95 and have them do the job they were hired for. There hasn’t been a time when I havn’t seen them out there stopping cars.
TR says
Are you kidding? I drive the streets of Palm Coast on a daily bases and in all areas and have seen deputies all the time. One of the reasons that a Flagler county deputy is on I95 is because the car they have pulled over started being followed on a street in PC. Another reason is a deputy might have gotten a call south or north of where he/she is and the quickest way to get to the location from the call would be to take I95. The interstate is monitored by the state police. The deputies are doing their job.
Besides your last sentence is kinda contradicting. You should have wrote “There hasn’t been a time when I HAVE seen them out there stopping cars.” The way you wrote it is you see them out all the time pulling over cars.
Celia Pugliese says
As usual our excellent Councilwoman Pontieri is straight to the point “prevention not reaction” is the solution…Install some cameras in those areas…and our neighbors nearby need to report any suspicious activities without so much fear of retribution! Anyone have motion detection cameras nearby then check the images taken and copy the city and sheriff if suspects recorded .
Fellow residents, digital image works wonders for our sheriff to catch vandals and anything else, as per our own experience in our street years ago, that now, is almost heaven! Takes a village to help and to stop these problems. We all have the tools so lets use them otherwise are our tax dollars wasted painting over and over…Catch the vandals and have them buy the paint and paint it over as community work and made it public news!
Ed P says
So if you see something, say something? Wasn’t that a campaign against terrorism? Report any suspicious activity? Like what? Should we ask George Zimmerman to determine what is suspicious?
Spying on the neighbors and their children could be misconstrued as a bit fascist.
Jack says
There is also graffiti sprayed on the FPL utility boxes on Coral Reef Ct N between Colonial Ct and Cold Spring Ct. It is on the canal side so everyone on that canal has to look at it whenever in their yard. It has been there at least 2 years.
TR says
Gang tag, bet it’s red paint isn’t it?
Familiar Tag says
Now I’m no expert but I grew up near NYC in the 1970’s & ’80s and Ive see the idiots “Tag” (Similar style) around PC Pkway ten years ago you can still see it faintly pulling out of dollar general next to Sherwin Williams, and that I recall was fresh when I started working around there circa 2015 or so. so this tells me we are looking for an older punk probably in their mid 20’s? Just a theory
Dennis C Rathsam says
What did you expect???? Thank STUFF EM IN ALVIN, and his band of realators from hell, now we have (too say the least) the same crap I saw in NY. Guess whats comming Palm Coasters…And it aint good, Lots are flooding, traffic sucks, the school board is in termoil, taxes, & water going up again… Crime is about to explode in Palm Coast, seniors beware.Lock your doors, watch before you exit your car, Your no longer safe. Stuff Em In,s dream is comming true….Jacksoville south, Daytona north… Watch the news see what comming, someone is murdered every day! Funny when I retired almost 20 years ago, this was the place to be!!! A boobie dazzler! Look whats its turned into, builders tell the city what to do, what a concept. the city of fools.Martin Luther King had a dream a good productive dream for all mankind. Alvins dream is the devils nightmare.
Mike says
Best way to combat graffiti is QUICK REMOVL. Simple but effective.
JimboXYZ says
What’s more disturbing about the graffiti is that it’s either taggers or worse yet, gang crime. and that may tie back to fentanyl & other illegal drug activity for abuse & distribution Isn’t the Alfin growth plan wonderful ? Someone relocated here from one of the larger cities might be a start to determine who they are. Are they also a part of the Stop & other street sign thefts ?
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/blurring-line-between-taggers-and-gang-bangers
Hmmm says
Find out who moved here from a large city? Best idea i ever heard!!!
JimboXYZ says
Tagging in Miami, Orlando & Jacksonville is a problem there. May even find someone that’s supposed to report their movements, that hasn’t. When I read this article, the first thought was a story about a decade back in Miami Beach. Not that he was a terrorist or anything that bad, but there are worse criminals that are gang related taggers.
https://www.local10.com/news/2013/08/08/graffiti-writer-who-died-after-police-tasered-him-was-known-as-reefa/
https://www.police1.com/gangs/articles/how-police-can-gain-intelligence-from-gang-graffiti-MvdTDCKoViQkvbMf/
The Sour Kraut says
How about consequences? Get them on camera, find out who they are, bill them (or their parents) for the cost of removal, plus a fine.
Randy Bentwick says
A few years ago PC went ballistic over traffic cameras. Now people want to have surveillance cameras to stop kids from tagging? Cameras won’t stop them it will just make them go somewhere else where there are no cameras. But I guess that’s the goal of the people in the C section. Just move the problem somewhere where they can’t see it.
Ed P says
Since Florida law prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from purchasing spray paint, and most tagging would occur under the cover of darkness, could we have a family/parental conundrum?
How about this solution, parents with children in the general area, lock up your spray paint and have the kids home after dark on occasion. Try family dinners all together at a dinner table. Speak with your children. Meet their friends and their parents. Get involved, and no, it’s not up to the village to raise your children. It’s your responsibility!
It’s absurd that every problem needs to be fixed by the authorities. Take responsibility for yourself and family. It’s not the sheriff’s department fault. Who’s next to be blamed, the construction worker who put the structure up?
Pogo says
@FlaglerLive
The comments on this, like most “police beat” reports, are a real tribute to the endurance of phrenology.
A tip of the hat to, “…worship their mothers…” Right up there with when the fertilizer meets the air handler.
James says
Gangs? Perhaps in this case.
But I’ve noticed graffiti (as in the photo) popping up on canal “bumpers” in the F section (going to the European Village) over the last few months. This is out in the middle of the waterway, on the peripheral edging of the bumpers, near the waterline. So if it’s a gang, they must either be very good swimmers or wait around for a really low tide to make their tags out there.
Looks more to me like the work of a mischievous kayaker or (adult) boater. So I’m somewhat in agreement with the comment by “Familiar Tag” above as to the origin of some of this stuff around town.
Why would an adult or adults do such a thing?
I’ll just keep that opinion to myself.
Rami says
Well, everyone clamored for affordable housing. Do you see any differences with all these duplexes and apartments now?
Dolo says
Maybe if the FCSO plate reader on Town Center Blvd just west of Royal Palms gets tagged ,they’ll be more proactive. The same tagging has popped up on the Waterfront Park area. Buried cable sign, other municipal signs, one was so rusted out it fell over. Maybe they’ll try the Hammck bridge like the overpasses in other cities and states. I love listening to KOOL 109 but when Staley does his promo droning on and on about arrests, and calls( today it said 800+ calls were answered) over the past long holiday weekend I almost fell asleep.
TR says
OK I have looked at the picture again and noticed a very important thing. On the curbing graffiti they are all the same. The first two are really noticeable that they are the same, the third is a bit harder and the forth I’m assuming is the same. So this tells me it is gang related and that is their tag. Haven’t been able to figure out which gang it is yet, but if I do I’ll let you all know, unless someone else figures it out first.
John says
Welcome to New York!!
Truth says
LOL the C section is the safest area in palm Coast there is no gangs you people in the comments are hilarious trying to make a problem where there isn’t one
TR says
If you believe there are no gangs in Palm Coast then you are delirious. The two biggest ones here are the bloods and the cripes. Heck just about 7 years ago the leader of the bloods killed someone in Palm Coast and is now in State prison. There are a few little wanna bee gangs here as well and those are the ones that are doing the painting. Maybe just do a search of news articles about gangs in Palm Coast and then maybe you will start believing it. Or better yet ask a deputy because they know all about them. But if you want to continue to believe there are no gangs here, then stay under the rock you live under.
T says
You clearly can’t read I said the C section is the safest area in palm Coast did I say palm Coast had no gangs ? No the C section does not have any gangs it’s houses close to a million and over a million in value on canals with sailboats there are no gang members LOL
familiar tag says
But Someones adult child probably lives up in there, or hangs out with someone that lives there, Hell I used to rent and live in northern C section sailboat country on a canal before it got way to expensive so I agree with you, I never had to drive home in the middle of the day because an expensive package was delivered to my porch there were neighbor eyes everywhere The C section knows who belongs and who doesn’tand always looks out for its own. That style or prose if you will is same as tags painted over ten years ago around town. This isn’t a gang, this is an individual rebellious anarchist and he’s been at it a while, probably just pissed at his life but not talented. This is not an Artist. this is an anarchist.
James says
Not to mention a possible real estate value connection.
Just say’n.
TR says
Don’t know why your comment was moved to the bottom of the comment section when I know it was already posted a few days ago and I replied to it and my comment is gone all together. I’ll reply again and maybe this time it won’t be censored and deleted.
I guess people don’t want to know the real TRUTH about the gangs in Palm Coast. But if you really believe their are no gangs in Palm Coast, then you must be living under a rock, don’t know for sure, or just don’t want to believe it. The two biggest gangs in Palm Coast that I know about are the Bloods and the Cripes. In fact a few years back the head gang member of the Bloods was arrested and put in prison for murdering someone in Palm Coast. There are also a number of wannabe gangs that have tagged electrical boxes and the back of stop signs with red paint throughout the city. Maybe educate yourself by doing a search on gang related articles from Palm Coast and you’ll see your comment is false.
Hmmm says
The guy you’re referring to didnt go away for murdering someone. It was a home invasion and the resident shot one of the intruders dead. The “gang member” was charged with his death.
lame town says
y’all freaking out in the comments about some graffiti! yall clearly never been out of pc and automatically be assuming graffiti is a low life or gangs. this town had NOTHING TO DO NOTHING!! and y’all complain about kids getting into bad thing? make things to do a little paint on a building never killed anyone ! people be bored. there’s bigger problems in this town than paint. fix the roads, schools, make more things to do than building homes, storage units, stuff there ain’t even space for
TR says
So you think that it’s rich kids doing the graffiti? Give me a break. You don’t think this is a problem until it happens in your neighborhood or they paint something that belongs to you on your property. I got an idea, if you don’t think this is a big deal. How about you go out and remove the paint these wannabe gang members painted. Your neighbors will be greatly appreciative and it won’t cost the tax payers a dime.
Hmmm says
Theres some real dramatic people in here. You know how you know you live in one of the safest places in the US? When this makes the news.