Graffiti Everywhere in Santa Monica

In Santa Monica fresh blotches of graffiti decorate the backs of street signs here near the ocean. There are, almost daily, fresh splashes on walls in the San Fernando Valley, on downtown Los Angeles buildings and on billboards along the highways.

Los Angeles does not appear to be alone in a recent upsurge in graffiti, which is turning up in some unlikely places. Alabama, New Mexico, South Carolina and in larger cities like Nashville and Portland, Chicago, Denver, New York and Seattle.

 

Neighborhood leaders and law enforcement officials blame what they call a glamorization of graffiti, reflected by a new graffiti exhibit at the Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood, even after an earlier furor over a full-fledged graffiti exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art.