Sacramento mural defaced with graffiti. Business owner ‘disappointed and discouraged’
Lucy Crocker spent $6,000 in June 2017 to commission a colorful mural on her midtown Sacramento business to deter vandals from tagging her building with graffiti.
Her investment had paid off, not only keeping vandals away but also attracting photographers and community members who, she said, fell in love with the painting.
Her heart sunk on Saturday morning, when she found the brightly-colored mural of a woman wearing a space helmet had been defaced overnight with graffiti.
“First, I was shocked. I almost burst out crying,” Crocker told The Sacramento Bee.
She said she then felt “disappointed and discouraged” that her efforts to keep graffiti off the mural and her business had failed. She owns the building in the 1600 block of 19th Street, which has housed her public relations firm — Lucy & Company — since 1999.
The wall on the side of her building along an alley had been a canvas for vandals on numerous occasions before the mural went up. Crocker said she spent about $1,500 a year on removing or painting over graffiti on her building. Most of the repair costs came from removing graffiti from brick next to where the mural is now.
Crocker was told that placing a mural on her building will deter vandals, because taggers will not deface a murals. And vandals stayed away for more than two years. In that time, she said there have been up to 25 photo shoots in front of the mural.
Girls wearing NASA T-shirts, motorcyclists who think the woman in the mural is wearing a motorcycle helmet and a police canine calendar have all taken turns getting photos in front of the mural, Crocker said.
“It’s a community asset, not just a deterrence,” she said about the mural, which was painted by John Horton.
Horton was expected to meet with Crocker later this week to determine how much it will cost to repair the damage to the mural, she said. Crocker doesn’t want to leave the graffiti on there much longer.
City code enforcement officials met with Crocker on Monday. She said they will offer some ideas on a type of coating for the mural to help protect it from serious damage with any vandalism in the future.
She also had a visit from Sacramento Police Capt. Norm Leong, who suggested the installation of lighting and security cameras around the mural. Vandals spray-paint graffiti under the cover of darkness; where they can’t be seen from the street.
Leong told Crocker that officers who patrol the area on bicycle keep track of graffiti and gather information that can lead to arrests.
“Normally, they don’t catch them in the act. They develop cases against them,” Leong said about the officers who investigate vandalism.
Crocker said she and the staff at her firm, which specializes in water and other environmental issues, spent a lot of time documenting the graffiti to provide information to police before the mural was painted. She said that work helped police prosecute one vandal under a felony charge, since the cost for damages was so high.
She’s hoping that installing cameras will scare away vandals or help police find those who tag property with graffiti.
