Ronnie Polaneczky | The mess of graffiti outweighs art value

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, January, 2007

LAST WEEK, I wrote about a heavily graffitied wall that runs parallel to the east-bound lanes of the Schuylkill Expressway (near Spring Garden Street) and is separated from the road by Amtrak rails.

At issue was that Amtrak, after years of easy collaboration with the city's Graffiti Abatement Team, had suddenly stopped allowing the team to cross the rails to clean the mess.

Today, Amtrak officials will finally meet with the city to work out a plan to clean the wall, which had become, I wrote, a "technicolor horror."

While this revived spirit of cooperation will come as good news to many, it'll surely bring only contempt from graffiti lovers who took issue with my column's statement: "Nothing says Philly doesn't give a crap about itself more than a blighted...