Lewis Place Wall, Before & After

There’s a brick wall on Lewis Place, just off Coney Island Avenue, that runs alongside Geo Gas. A couple years ago, someone painted it, as seen above. Like much of the wall art around the neighborhood, it probably wasn’t for everyone, but it was bright, colorful, and it let you know that the gas station was there.

Last year, that was painted over in a plain white, and since then it’s been a target for tags. This photo is how it looks at the moment.

Clearly, there aren’t a lot of great solutions for tackling graffiti. We can paint murals, but even those sometimes get tagged; we can paint a wall a solid color, but then we’ll have to repaint it frequently; we can volunteer to clean up frequently tagged public places, even though they’re re-tagged the next day; or we can hope the city will help. But we have to try, and keep trying.

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