City of Oakland Public Works Agency referred this issue to CEDA CODE ENFORCEMENT, service request # 409971. Please contact that agency to follow-up. For more information, please visit the "Helpful Links to Other Resource Partners" at the link below.
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/Connect/ReportaProblem/index.htm
Thank you.

City of Oakland Public Works Agency referred this issue to CEDA CODE ENFORCEMENT, service request # 409971. Please contact that agency to follow-up. For more information, please visit the "Helpful Links to Other Resource Partners" at the link below.
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/Connect/ReportaProblem/index.htm
Thank you.

City of Oakland Public Works Agency referred this issue to CEDA CODE ENFORCEMENT, service request # 409971. Please contact that agency to follow-up. For more information, please visit the "Helpful Links to Other Resource Partners" at the link below.
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PWA/Connect/ReportaProblem/index.htm
Thank you.

I am pretty sure this is a privately owned building. With owners that dont care to fix the graffiti.

Issue still here 7-18-12

Went past this today 9_15_2012 and it's all still there. They are working on the front of the building, why can't the owners put a coat of paint over this? It looks horrible and has been there almost this entire year.

The graffiti problem in Oakland is completely out of control. These criminals run amok with their spray cans and fire extinguishers filled with paint without any worry about being apprehended. The City of Oakland then allows this graffiti to remain in place as a calling card for every graffiti criminal in the Bay Area and Northern California. There is no plan in Oakland to deal with this problem We have this site to report blighted properties and nothing gets done. It's a peace meal approach which doesn't work. Meanwhile the vandals run amok defacing everything in site. It's a reflection on a dysfunctional OPD as well as a dysfunctional city government. Any city government with any kind of pride or self-respect would care what their city looks like to the hundreds of thousands of commuters who drive 880 every single day. Unfortunately the City of Oakland is satisfied in letting this blight fester as a calling card for other graffiti criminals.

While I agree that this particular building is an eyesore and it is unfortunate that the owners have not remedied the graffiti, broad-brushing the actions of the PWA and the City on this site really does not help the situation (Trying to shame them into action?). We need to push for more substantial solutions at city council meetings and by contacting the mayor's office.

Personally, I have been pleasantly surprised at the response time of the PWA when dealing with issues within the scope of their authority. Code Enforcement is another issue and it seems action depends more on the sensitivity of the property owner/tenant when served a notice.

As far as OPD allowing the graffiti to continue; well, we do seem to have an interesting problem there don't we? I'm afraid that is going to take a lot more work to remedy than calling them dysfunctional. It would really be nice to setup sting operations for graffiti prone areas, but resources are always a concern. What is your solution?

Graffiti in this location is still viewable from the freeway as of 1/18/2012

Correction: 1/18/13

Another way would be to look up each tagger's name online via websites like flickr, pinterest, tumblr, instagram. See if the tagger has a profile of themselves and try making a connection. I've seen taggers come back to locations during the day, in order to take pictures of their work.

Yep. The building still looks terrible. PWA, can you provide some insight where this building is in the process? Has a cleanup order been issued?

This building has been covered for over a year, they are now tagging over old tags since they ran out of room. Nido attempted to cover over their area with green paint a couple times, but it kept getting tagged, and I think they gave up. The only way this will be stopped is with a physical barrier, like razor wire or motion activated flamethrowers.

Please clean it up Oaktown.

Oakland Public Works?

http://youtu.be/DqtgR2kbmjw

This issue has been up for over a year. It is in a highly visible area on a building where a couple of businesses have just opened. I would have no problem with Oakland City Attorney go after the responsible party, or the city putting up cameras or barriers. Just my two cents.

I completely agree with E. Gonsalves's comments. We try to show our pride in the city by posting on this site. But the problems seem out of control. It is very upsetting to feel powerless. My car gets broken into in broad daylight in the Grand-Lake area. Calling the police would be risible. A meter short changes me. Do I call parking enforcement? I'm offered drugs while I'm walking my dogs. I witness drug deals and prostitution. There is absolutely no effective or immediate recourse. I don't blame the OPD. I do blame city government. Do you honestly think that if we brought our stories to a City Council meeting we would be listened to? Oakland can't even control its murder problem, so I'm resigned to tracking/recording the deterioration until I can move.

Please come and put a mural up. CRP are a great resource for this. http://crpbayarea.org/

These guys are also a good mural resource: https://www.facebook.com/TDKCollective85

TDK Collective did the great "Stay" mural on Kimballs (3rd Street near Washington). Could we get them to do a MUCH larger "Stay As" mural in this much more visible location? I'd contribute funds toward paint and I'm sure others would too.

Plus you'd see it from the freeway on the way to the Coliseum. That would be awesome! Check the mural here. http://www.gofundme.com/oaklandstaymural

Hi, I'm part of TDK Collective, we painted the STAY mural in Jack London on 3rd and Washington. We opened a crowd funding page to make the mutal happen. The wall look similar to ^ wall before we painted it.

A mural at this location would be great but supply cost alone for a wall that big is huge. If anyone has the owners contact, we would love to talk to him/her about maybe providing funds for the mural.

Also, we are having a free family friendly mural unveiling on Feb. 15th from 1-3:30pm. Come by and check out out latest work and our the sketch to our next project.

Property owner (last summer) was a retired gentleman living in Gardnerville, NV by the name of Jack N Solomon. When he and I spoke, he felt it was Caltrans responsibility to clean up the wall because they were working on the onramp and left the wall exposed. I doubt Caltrans agreed, but since then it has gotten worse. Perhaps a combination of funding from Mr Solomon and a new GoFundMe campaign could make it possible for something to happen. Here is the contact information I found last year for Mr Solomon: jnsolomonj@yahoo.com; 775-782-5188. Good luck!

For your unveiling on Feb 15 (unfortunately I'll be out of town), may I suggest you send details to info@jlda.org and ask them to promote your great work via their Jack London District email list.

Just noticed the comment by G. Knecht...If he had paid attention to my comments on Cal Trans, they will replace the fence on the Oak Street on ramp to 880. There was no art work on the building before they took the fence down to work on the ramp and freeway from Oak to 5TH Ave. They never said they'd clean up the mess. But there's no reason to paint the building until the fence is replaced. Which is scheduled for some time mid 2014. Knecht is only ticked because I did not volunteer to join the JLBID to the tune of almost 4K per year. Also, I no longer own the property. Jack

I agree with Jack that there is no point in doing anything with this until the fence is replaced. I would like to think the combination of a mural and fence would discourage future tagging but I've yet to find a fence that keeps out these "artists". They can't even keep the people from under 880 with that massive fence installation.

What I really want is a camera and remote controlled paint gun - I'll be happy to man it for a few hours a week just for the pleasure of tagging some taggers. That or a curfew!

Yes I know these are not real solutions, or ones that would not make the problem worse, but I think everyone is feeling a ton of frustration with the level tagging in JLD and everywhere else.

Escalating disparity in income distribution and slashing of social programs and policing levels - anyone see a connection there with escalating petty crime?

The tenants already cleaned this up twice. Takes less than a week for the jerks to re tag. Gee, it sure is a good thing that the voters, many non property owners who do not have to pay property taxes, voted (passed) that wonderful "Crime prevention tax" back in 2010/2011. It gives the city a bunch more money to fight crime. I think tagging is still a crime. But it probably went to city council salaries. Oh well, maybe the new Jack London BID that the owners for property pay for will fix this. Jack

I think the building should be cleaned up regardless if the fence is up or not. Someone needs to take responsibility. Either Caltrans, the City of Oakland, Jack London neighbors, the building's owner etc. It's been blighted for so long that it sends a horrible message to any resident, visitor or potential investor in Oakland. The building needs to be cleaned up at the first sign of graffiti. The responsible parties have just surrendered to the vandals. Oakland might as well send out invitations in the mail to every vandal in northern California and beyond. People need to work together to get this wall painted and kept clean after it's painted. This is just a wall folks. This is not rocket science but it stands out like a sore thumb as an example of dysfunction in certain parts of Oakland city government, Caltrans, and neighborhood associations.

Get rid of that art work ?? Have you no feelings for the self esteem for the
artists who put their heart and soul into these displays? Not to mention the
cost for the time and material used. If you don't like it form a work party and
remove it at your expense. Jack

I have passed by this building for years and felt compelled to post a comment after reading through this chain.

I remember the side of this building being graffiti free when the fence was in place that ran along the back of the building. Once that came down due to the freeway work, it was like sending an open invitation to local "artists" to use the building as a blank canvas.

It is obvious when driving through Oakland that there are some really talented graffiti artists in the area. Some building owners have commissioned these artists to create a piece on the side of their buildings, but I don't think that would really work in this case.

This building runs along side the freeway, and although it is seen by people driving and walking by, it's not a wall on a prime street that is out in the open, which would be more visually protected. Sadly even if the owner paid to have someone paint a mural, there's nothing stopping anyone from defacing the it. The days of not tagging over other artwork seem to be gone.

I agree that the owner of a building should keep their structure well maintained, but to what cost? In this case it's not like they haven't tried to do anything. CalTrans was contacted, they have tried to clean up this wall, but to no avail, taggers keep coming back and tagging. You can't expect the owner to pay to have the wall painted or cleaned every week, that could bankrupt any business owner.

Security cameras are an idea, but what would come of the footage? Potentially you'd see a group of people or person with no identifying features painting the wall at 3 AM on a Thursday morning. If by some miracle they didn't spray out the camera and you actually got something usable on film, what would OPD do? I'm pretty sure they have bigger issues on their plate right now than getting the people tagging the side of a building facing 880, and rightly so. I'd rather have them trying to catch the people that kicked in my 70 year old neighbors door at 11 PM and robbed her.

Again, I agree, this building is an eyesore, but let's be realistic, there is only so much the owner or the community can do. Obviously it's not that important of an issue to the city, because nothing was done to repair the fence when the owner first brought the problem up with CalTrans. Until the road work is finished and a better fence is put up, what is the point?

ps. I think it's complete BS that the building owners name, number and email was put on this site.....especially since he's no longer the owner.

They attempted to cover up some of it last week with a stripe of gray paint. It was tagged over the next day. Considering how attractive this target is, it would be a great place to setup a sting operation. I agree the OPD has much greater fish to fry, but the "broken window" theory is proven. Blight like this attracts more blight.

I disagree with the people that think that "nothing will work". I work over in "New Chinatown/ San Antonio" neighborhood on the east side of the lake where graffiti might be the worst in the city (I know that is a pretty big claim). A lot of the businesses are completely covered in graffiti. The ones that aren't are the ones that paint over graffiti the second it goes up. The graffiti vandals realize this and stay away from these buildings. They want to look at their work, they want other people to look at their work. Paint is not cheap. When they figure out that their tags go away quickly they go somewhere else.
That's my two cents on the issue. Whether I'm right or wrong, something needs to be done by our city council and by our city attorney.

I COMPLETELY agree, JR003, especially as a JLS neighborhood resident. I see this day in and day out. If you own a building, this is part of your responsibility.

Buildings that do not allow graffiti are not continuously tagged. I agree 100% with JR003. the graffiti problem wasn't even 1/10th of what it is now before Quan became mayor...total failure.

I am forwarding this string to the mayor, vice mayor and my neighborhood councilperson. Probably nothing will happen but since the last comment i see is a year ago and it's still popping up as an issue, perhaps they can get on CalTrans to replace the fence.

Don't bother, it has been gone for months and is now a beautiful mural.

See https://goo.gl/photos/9rJpHhLFAss6d1TE8

Thanks for fixing this issue!