PORTLAND-- There are some serious graffiti gripes in Northwest Portland. The Centennial Mills water tower has been a part of Portland's skyline for nearly a century. But taggers keep hitting it and neighbors say the city needs to follows its own rules and clean it up.
The last time the water tower was tagged, neighbors said it took the city a year to cover it up. It got tagged again about ten months later and yet again this weekend.
Now neighbors want the graffiti gone for good.
I want to see that graffiti painted over, said neighbor Jan Valentine. I want it to disappear.
The city of Portland owns the building and the water tower. City code says a property owner must remove graffiti within 10 days of when it first appears.
This is an extreme case, said Shawn Uhlman of the Portland Development Commission. You have a property that is not easy to get to, not easy to access and therefore not easy to do any sort of remediation when it comes to graffiti.
Neighbors said it must be possible to get up there if the taggers have been able to do it nearly a half dozen times.
The city said it is weighing the cost of putting up a barricade, considering that structure is slated to be redeveloped soon.
