Charleston officials: graffiti on the decline

Historic sites, churches, homes and businesses. It seems none are immune from the stain of graffiti, but Charleston police have been making arrests and say complaints to a graffiti hotline have dropped more than 70 percent since December.

The decline in complaints is little solace to the victims, particularly when vandals decide to deface a historic structure and the paint can't simply be painted over or pressure-washed off.

At Second Presbyterian Church on Meeting Street, a 19th century brick wall was recently marred with the childish scribbles of a vandal who used black spray paint.

"Obviously, we don't want to do something that would effect the structural integrity of the mortar," said Spence Roddey, head of church's property committee. "The police don't have experience in dealing with historic brick structures, and we don't want to go out with a pressure washer and blow a hole in it."

Earlier this week, a 17th century overseer's cabin at McLeod Plantation on James Island was hit by a vandal.

More commonly, vandals have been defacing vacant downtown storefronts and boarded-up houses, and the walls of commercial buildings.

The city launched an anti-graffiti initiative in May 2007, and Mayor Joe Riley announced then that the city would "remove every piece of graffiti that these vandals place in our community."

However, the police department does not have the authority to remove graffiti on private property without the permission of the property owner, and in some cases does not have the necessary equipment. The department has one employee assigned to graffiti abatement, and a graffiti hotline that accepts complaints on an answering machine: 958-1500.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.