HOA Gang Graffiti Fence Battle Ends
Do you think a blank fence inspires less gang graffiti violence then a fence filled with inspiring art?
Many of you have been sending inquiries asking me what the final view of the graffiti fence looks like. If you remember – Summerlakes Homeowners Association (HOA) determined that my efforts to cover gang graffiti against the HOA laws. A wrestling match ensued over the conceptual idea that my community should be using more creative ideas to fight gang graffiti within our HOA. (Here’s that original story post – LINK.) Unfortunately, my HOA did not want to try a creative approach to prevent gang graffiti. My social media fans came together to help me pay for the monthly fines issued by the HOA for keeping the fence experiment up. Long story short — the HOA raised the fees so high we decided the fines were not a balance for the effort. We tore down the entire fence, saved Peter Thaddeus‘s painting and moved it to the interior garden, then donated any extra fees remaining that we collected from my astoundingly supportive followers to three different community oriented non-profit organizations. I have hopes of making the interior garden a sustainable and green education area for my community.
Above is the final view this fall and below are views of my husband, Luis, and our good friend Ricky Rolon tearing down the old and rebuilding the new. Thanks to all of you for your amazing help – I love you and am grateful for your support. I think the story that was told with the fence might inspire other communities to try new ideas to fight gang graffiti. I hope you’ll consider this question and answer it below — Do you think a blank fence inspires less gang graffiti violence than a fence filled with inspiring art?
So they resorted to extortion to win the battle. Seems to me that you should be protected by law against such tactics. Not a lawyer to know if that is legal. But I am glad you kept the art, even if you couldn’t share it with your community anymore. It will be interesting to see if you fence now becomes a target.
Part of my goal is to use that area in my back yard as an educational center. 🙂 I hope we can make that work so we can teach more people in our community about growing organic and being green. Thanks!
A happy ending for you at least to see the fence everyday…sad for the neighborhood as the short sightedness and business as usual of your HOA…to make good change is not possible for them, but I think it has helped many consider better ways to deal with graffiti.
The fence art seems the perfect addition to your inner garden! I think that’s where art such as this is best utilized. I don’t know anyone who likes neighborhood graffiti, but unless we’d want to drive down the street seeing everyone’s personal expression of art on every fence, then I have to agree with the HOA on this issue. I think the best thing to deter graffiti is to take care of a space and have well-planned landscaping that elevates the look of a neighborhood overall.
Oh how I do detest HOA’s. They really have no governing rules about their own behavior, spending and bullying tactics. We bought a new place earlier this year and one of my favorite things about it was no HOA. If my neighbor thinks a toilet is a lovely planter I may not agree but thats just one of the things that freedom is supposed to be about. Conform! Isn’t that what Hitler wanted? Everyone must comply and be the same. Beautiful art by the way, and yes I think it would have discouraged graffiti. Apologies, I can’t spell for !%#@