Skate park graffiti has 'gotten brutal'

LOGAN SQUARE | Vandalism-prone outsiders defacing area: activists

Logan Square activists who are frustrated with graffiti at a new skate park say it illustrates how taggers are outmaneuvering officialdom.

Their arsenal has expanded from spray paint to glass-etching acids and clusters of stickers that are a public nuisance, said Larry Ligas of Logan Square Concerned Citizens.

"It's gotten brutal," said Concerned Citizens co-founder, Joe Pagan.

And some taggers aren't just aimlessly defacing property. Some are promoting a cause.

For example, when LSCC members visited the yet-to-open park Saturday, Ligas said they found it decorated with stickers promoting T-shirts, a DJ and an April 25 socialism conference. Some youths were using markers to tag skateboard ramps, he said.

One admitted he was carrying a container of a glass-etching acid that can be found at art and hobby shops, Ligas said.

The park, on Logan Boulevard under the Kennedy Expy., is supposed to be for neighborhood skate boarders but is becoming a magnet for vandalism-prone outsiders, according to Ligas and Pagan.

They said the taggers they confronted Saturday weren't from Logan Square. The youths told them they were from a Chicago arts school, other parts of the city, and the suburbs.

"They're defacing our community," Ligas said.

Acid-etching vandals have kept Randy Smith busy. He sells a security film that prevents the damage. He has seen pockets of etched windows in Logan Square, Wicker Park and downtown.

"Columbia College is one of my big clients,'' said Smith, of R.A.D. Window Technology. "They've had a big problem."

Farther north, a police officer said some Albany Park streets have been dotted with stickers for the socialism conference.

It doesn't matter if they're placed on public property like light poles, the officer said: "When you put these stickers up, you are graffiti-ing the city."

John Beacham, an organizer of the event, said he wasn't aware of where the stickers were placed.

But he said the city has "draconian" laws on posting bills, selective enforcement, and, "It's not a public safety issue."