One year ago this month, Ercolini Park celebrated its dedication, the culmination of a lot of hard work, volunteer hours, donations of money and material, and it’s now a popular place for so many residents west of The Junction who had no neighborhood park before. And now – the work of tagging vandals at the Ercolini Park playground is sparking neighborhood outrage. David Cagen sent us photos; we have blurred most of the tagging but felt it important to at least show the extent of what they did:
The white spray-paint pattern resembles that used in the obscene words/drawings with which homes within a mile were vandalized recently (WSB coverage here); we have a call out to police to ask if there’s any link or any progress in the case. Meantime, David, who was among the many who worked on the park, writes the three letters in the tags started with W (we’re not including the whole thing) and adds:
… has anyone seen this pattern? The neighbors are on the lookout and are going to shoot some pictures of the next repeat performance. My guess is, defacing little kids’ play areas isn’t worth getting into that much trouble. The park is nobody’s but the kids, so to see it look like crap is not fun. If anyone has leads, let us know.
We followed up by asking David if the neighborhood needs help cleaning this up; he believes they will:
My guess is the city doesn’t have budget nor the time to clean this up. The plastic parts are pretty easy, they can be scrubbed, and the kids sliding have already worn off a lot. The poles and the merry-go-round are tougher and I don’t know the proper way to remove the markings without mucking up the existing paints.
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