Graffiti

1. An interesting article from the Seattle Times, about focused graffiti eradication in Sno County. See "Cities look to tag team everything graffiti ." From the article:

While many people associate graffiti with gangs and crime, national studies show that only 10 to 15 percent of graffiti is gang-related, said Bob Hills. executive director of the National Council to Prevent Delinquency, a nonprofit funded by the aerosol-paint industry....

Lynnwood took a different tact, giving Brooks time to conduct a serious investigation. The result: In February, the city announced the arrest of nine youths, ages 10 to 16, whom Brooks alleges made up two "tagging crews" responsible for much graffiti damage in South County cities....

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon is an unexpected source of graffiti expertise: In the late 1990s, he coordinated an anti-graffiti program for the Downtown Seattle Association. In Seattle, he said, a single tag in an alley could attract more tags, followed by garbage dumping. "Pretty soon you see used syringes and condoms; next thing you know, you have street drug activity," he said.

2. The article dovetails with the approach of the Graffiti Tracker people. One of the people in the organization, Timothy Kephart, aanalyzed more than 450 gang graffiti photographs in the Carson area of California for his master’s thesis. “It became clear that gangs were using graffiti to actually communicate,” he says. (I haven't been able to dig up the thesis yet.)