Gilroy
– Police and community volunteers fight vandalism on a daily
basis, but there’s one type of graffiti that cannot be wiped away
or painted over.
Glass and window etching, as any graffiti, is unattractive for
businesses and their customers, owners say.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Police and community volunteers fight vandalism on a daily basis, but there’s one type of graffiti that cannot be wiped away or painted over.
Glass and window etching, as any graffiti, is unattractive for businesses and their customers, owners say. But the expense involved in replacing destroyed windows means the etching lasts much longer than other graffiti – sometimes years – even as most accounts put the prevalence of etching on a downward trend.
“It used to be a big problem, but I haven’t seen it recently,” said Angela Locke-Paddon, a community service officer with the Gilroy Police Department in charge of graffiti abatement. “But, of course, spray paint and marker you notice right away, but unless you’re walking right in front of the business, you’re not going to see (etching).”
That could be one of the reasons she has not received a report of window etching in several months, Locke-Paddon said. She noted the possibility that businesses simply have not reported new cases of etching – which looks like scratches in glass or Plexiglas – and are replacing windows themselves.
“That’s the whole point: That (vandals) want people to see what they’re doing,” she said.
Even amid fewer new instances, it’s the permanent nature of etching that makes it a problem for local businesses. Image & Design Salon & Day Spa replaced three of its front windows two months ago, and they remain spotless, a testament to the current downward trend.
But four other window panels that face First and Eigleberry streets have several square feet of etchings – each – that first began appearing at least five years ago, said Tyrene Boyd, owner of the salon at 7897 Eigleberry St.
“People do comment,” she said. “They say, ‘That’s terrible,’ because it is. It looks messy.”
The salon’s landlord recently replaced a few of the windows, the only way to “remove” etching, which costs hundreds of dollars per window.
“It was expensive,” Boyd said. “He didn’t want to do them all because he just thought they’d do it again.”
The rest of the windows may be replaced soon, she said, because vandals haven’t returned to etch the windows, or paint the outside of the building as has been done before.
Gilroy Flower Shop on Fifth Street has not replaced its windows, despite etchings on each of the eight window panels that make up the shop’s walls along Fifth Street and Gourmet Alley. The etchings are small compared to those at Image & Design – each is only one word – but they are at eye level and centered in each panel.
“Walking up, you can see it,” said Manager Gloria Anaya, who said she can’t remember when it appeared. “I think it’s pretty sad that they have to do that.”
The shop discovered a strategy that seems to prevent spray-painted tagging that used to frequently appear “all over” the front of the store, including on four-inch-wide strips of brick around the door frame. A few years ago, a mural-like design of butterflies hovering over patches of flowers was painted on every available exterior space, Anaya said. Since that happened, the tagging has stopped. But there is no similar way to protect the windows. Coatings would not work because the scratches run deep.
Gilroy police spend roughly $10,000 a year on graffiti abatement, funding “Wipe Out Watch” volunteers who cover tags on public property. The city does not pick up costs associated with etchings unless city-owned windows are targeted, Locke-Paddon said.
She said she does not specifically look for etchings because they can be so difficult to see, but business owners or GPD officers on foot downtown report the vandalism to her, so she can photograph and document it.
The people who etch windows are the same type that graffiti buildings, she said, and are typically kids walking on downtown sidewalks, or more serious tagging crews.
