Graffiti is a growing problem in Kansas City that costs taxpayers thousands of dollars - each year - to clean up.
Recently, the word ‘screw’ has started popping up all over the city’s northeast neighborhoods.
“It’s mostly about just what they can vandalize. You know, they want to destroy things,” said Bryan Stadler, president of the Indian Mound Neighborhood Association.
Stadler said the problem first started in October.
The word was scribbled on stop signs and light poles but then was tagged on homes, school walls and local businesses.
Tonight at 10, one neighborhood's attempt to stop graffiti that seems to just keep growing @41ActionNews pic.twitter.com/MCPRqIv3pF
— Ariel Rothfield KSHB (@arothfield) March 7, 2016
He and others in the neighborhood have spent hundreds of hours cleaning and repainting walls.
“We can spend a whole morning or whole weekend cleaning off graffiti and the next week, every day, we are seeing new stuff down the street,” Stadler said. “A neighborhood like this, it really struggles. We really struggle to bring private investment in here. When people come through this area and they just see a lot of graffiti, they are reluctant to invest their money here.”
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Ariel Rothfield can be reached at ariel.rothfield@kshb.com.
