Hampton traders wage graffiti war to stop shopping precinct turning into a ‘ghetto’
Hampton traders who fear their graffiti infested shopping precinct will soon resemble a “ghetto” are gearing up to tackle the scourge head on.
Inner South
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Hampton traders who fear their graffiti infested shopping precinct will soon resemble a “ghetto” are gearing up to tackle the scourge head on.
Hampton Traders Association president Sandra Yeowart is calling for the support of Hampton St business owners and volunteers to halt the graffiti problem, which she has labelled “appalling”.
“We have to get serious about stopping taggers before Hampton St turns into a ghetto,” she said.
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“The taggers see our walls as a blank canvas and they’re not going to stop but we have to take a stance and let them know we’re not going to tolerate it.”
Ms Yeowart attended an emergency meeting with Friends of Bayside Roads and the Church Street Traders Association last week after Hampton St was hit by a Melbourne Cup night graffiti blitz.
She has decided to take up the Brighton model successfully spearheaded by Church Street Traders Association president Kieran Cromie “as soon as possible”.
Top of her list is to remove all “old” graffiti before Christmas.
“There’s going to be a lot more challenges for us because Hampton St is such a long street with a lot of corners but we have to start something,” Ms Yeowart said.
“A good start will be to try and halt the taggers painting on long construction site fences and then we can go from there.”
Ms Yeowart will request a meeting with the council to try and secure funds to get an anti-graffiti program up and running.
The Brighton program suffered a slight setback earlier this month after Church St was attacked by a vandal only hours after three months worth of tags were removed.
Mr Cromie circulated images of the vandal — who scribbled 18 tags in a short amount of time — his tag and the car he travelled in to all secondary schools in the area.
“If the schools don’t know him then I will take his image to police because we can’t allow vandals to do what they want,” Mr Cromie said.
Beaumaris Concourse traders have also expressed a desire to explore methods to curb graffiti at their shopping precinct.
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