DAYTON — Dayton Police say graffiti is a big problem around the city, and there’s a big focus on keeping the city clean for the upcoming NATO Parliamentary Assembly and well after those guests leave.
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“It looks like, I won’t say the word, but it looks very, very bad,” Major Brian Johns said.
Police said Tuesday that the graffiti problem is close to out of hand in Dayton, with too many people disrespecting other people’s homes, garages, and businesses.
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Johns said the issue impacts the entire city. He also noted that N. Main Street and both East and West Third Streets are hotspots for taggers, but they are moving into downtown as well.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Mike Campbell asked if there was more urgency to clean up the graffiti with the upcoming NATO assembly.
“NATO is coming, right, but like this is more about our community,” Johns responded. “When NATO leaves, we’re still stuck with this.”
One downtown booster who spoke with News Center 7 is worried about graffiti both during NATO and the months after.
“I have a list of like 24 buildings in the downtown core that are all abandoned, catching graffiti, catching homeless,” Chris Riegel, Founder and Chief Executive of Stratacache, said. “They’re magnets for trouble.”
Images captured by Sky7 show that there is graffiti all over the Fidelity building on the corner of S. Main Street and W. 5th Street.
Police are asking people to get pictures and videos of any tagging they spot and to report it so they can look for witnesses and work to identify the vandals.
“We’re all about art and beauty, and making our community beautiful but there’s a right way to do it and this is the wrong way,” Johns said.
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