Unwanted graffiti upsets Christian organization

18.06.2007
By DAVID DUNHAM
A group of young men have spray-painted two walls by the side of State Highway 2 near Baypark with graffiti _ upsetting a non-profit Christian organisation.

Home owner Gaylene Davis and her husband Neil approached the six men and invited them to spray the wall they own in front of their property as they wanted some colour on it.

But the group also covered another wall in front of a house across the road with graffiti without asking the resident for permission. That property is owned by Habitat for Humanity, a Christian non-profit organisation that helps families in need.





Paul Broatch, chairman of the organisation's Tauranga branch, said that although he had not seen the graffiti himself he was "not happy" about it and expected the wall to be cleaned up.
The resident who rents the property declined to comment on the issue, as did others in the small street.

However, Mr Broatch said residents had expressed concern about what had been sprayed on the walls last week. It is hard to make out the words, although the wall owned by the resident has a person's face on it.

The Habitat for Humanity Tauranga branch committee will discuss the graffiti at a meeting tomorrow. Mr Broatch said until then it was difficult to comment on the issue.

However, he said: "It's not the best look. It's disappointing and not desirable. I will be having a look at it."

Mr Broatch said that as one of the walls was owned by the residents there was very little that could be done about the graffiti.

Wall owner Mrs Davis - who has been at her current home for four years - said the wall on the other side of the road would be painted by those who had sprayed graffiti on it.

"We allow them to do it to advertise themselves," Mrs Davis said as a man aged about 20 - who declined to talk to the Bay Times - sprayed a mural on the wall.

"`They are just rapt to be able to do it. I will fight for it to stay. The boys have said that if, a month down the track, we do not like it they will paint over it," she added.

The spray-painting follows a period when a spate of graffiti attacks in Mount Maunganui made the headlines.

The Bay Times reported last month that Arataki and Bayfair had been hit with the problem over the past three months.

In one of the worst cases, an entire house and garage in Gloucester Rd, Arataki, was tagged inside and out with spray paint and the walls scribbled on with crayons.

Constable Wayne Lambert, community field officer, said police were aware of the graffiti art on the walls by the side of State Highway 2 and had spoken to those doing it.

He said police were committed to stamping out graffiti and that 13 arrests for tagging had been made in the Mount Maunganui area in the past month.