EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Graffiti Vandals Destroy Historic East Side House
Wednesday, September 02, 2015
The historic Lippitt House at 200 Hope Street was tagged with graffiti this past week, and now neighbors have released video footage taken from the incident, which they say has been shared with police.
According to neighbors, the graffiti incident took place early last Wednesday morning, and the cleanup was handled privately by the property owners. The historic property, which is currently under construction, has been the subject of dispute over recent development on site over the past year.
See the photos BELOW
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAnd according to residents, the "tags" that were spray painted on the house have since been spotted around the city.
"Yesterday morning as I got off 95N at the Allens Ave exit, I noticed some of the same graffiti on the underside of the overpass at the Allens Ave intersection (coming off 95N and taking a left onto Allens the graffiti is right in front of you as you sit at the light)," said lawyer John Harrington, whose office is located at 200 Hope. "It was the very large “bubble-type” lettering that seems to spell out something like “BABOY” and is the exact same thing that was painted on 200 Hope. I then noticed other graffiti in the immediate vicinity – for example the letters “AGB” which was painted several times on 200 Hope (its on a building on the left hand side of Allens as you head into downtown just a few buildings down from the bubble graffiti)."
Neighborhood Issue
The property at 200 Hope Street was not the only one hit in the recent episode of graffiti on private property -- the Wheeler School across the street has also been hit by the same culprits.
"Graffiti is a sporadic, though of course troublesome issue for Wheeler. When it occurs we handle the clean up ourselves and do so immediately. Aside from the importance of maintaining the appearance of our buildings, we have found that quick clean-up is the best deterrence to repeat offenders. We have also found, predictably, that graffiti is rarest in our best-lit areas, and, as such, we have increased the "up-lighting" around the buildings," said Gary Esposito, Business Manager.
On August 6, Mayor Jorge Elorza joined the city’s Graffiti Task Force for a clean-up on Highland Avenue in Providence to highlight the service and remind residents that they can report graffiti to the Mayor’s Center for City Services by dialing 421-CITY.
“With the arrival of summer I have put the Graffiti Task Force on ‘high-alert’,” said Mayor Elorza. “If you see graffiti, call my Center for City Services and let us know so we can continue our aggressive efforts to keep Providence beautiful.”
A week later, the Providence Police Department put out an alert for "taggers" on downtown and on the south and west sides of town.
"The Providence Police Detective Bureau is seeking help from the public to identify the two individuals shown in the attached photos. The subjects shown have been actively tagging in the Downtown, Smith Hill, Federal Hill, and South Providence areas of the city for months. The subjects are known to tag the word “grime”. The photo attached is from an incident that occurred on July 30, 2015 at 0050 hours at 215 West Park Street, Providence. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Lieutenant Tim O’Hara at (401) 243-6360."
Meanwhile, the graffiti "tagger" who was arrested for his "lonely boy" tags around town last spring has garnered support through an indiegogo campaign to help pay for his court ordered damages of $12,500
"There is a lot of HEART behind LONELY. that HEART is in danger of being swept into a cycle of debt used to drown out and suppress the voices of youth, the poor, the working class and of everyone who falls on the wrong side of our discriminatory legal system," writes the fundraising page, which has garnered over $600 towards its $20,000 goal.
Related Slideshow: Providence College and University Tax-Exempt Properties
Below is a breakdown of how much revenue Providence will lose as properties recently purchased by four local colleges and universities are gradually phased off the tax rolls, rather than taken off immediately, in accordance with a 2003 set of agreements. The colleges agreed to pay full taxes for five years, then two thirds for the next five years, and one third for the remaining of 15 years. After that, the properties go off the tax rolls permanently. The first slide shows the total revenue decline in five-year increments. The second shows the total revenue loss over the entire 15-year period. The subsequent slides show for each of the colleges and universities lists the properties they own which fall under the agreement and how much each one is paying in total now and will be paying in the future. Data was obtained from the city Internal Auditor.
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