Keeping Cape Girardeau floodwall free of graffiti a constant challenge

When Haley Ellison and her sorority sisters recently launched an effort to clean up Cape Girardeau's downtown floodwall, they knew going in they wouldn't be able to erase every little scrap of graffiti.

But in their allotted time, the young women did what they could and plan to tackle another section of the wall sometime soon.

"We just dealt with the chalk (drawings) that day because we didn't really have the materials to get the paint off," said Ellison, secretary of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority at Southeast Missouri State University.

Besides vinegar and water, the girls used soap and good old-fashioned elbow grease during their hour-and-a-half-long community service project.

That kind of effort is a familiar refrain for Julia Thompson, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, who said the side of the wall that faces the river can be a magnet to mischief-makers in search of creative expression.

"It's an ongoing challenge and our staff probably is out there, if not once a day, a couple of times a week -- not only to pick up litter, but to check on graffiti," Thompson said.

While many larger communities have embraced graffiti walls as a way to channel creativity, Cape's policy is to keep the floodwall as clean as it can be, although with chalk drawings, "We're not as opposed to that," Thompson said.

With more than a mile of what amounts to an enormous canvas, keeping things clean is never easy and rarely comprehensive.

"I think you could probably have a staff person there full time, just to keep up with that," she said.

Ultimately, Thompson would love to find a way to fund cameras to help catch culprits in the act, but right now the primary way the parks department is alerted to problems is through police patrols and citizen reports.

Ptlm. Richard McCall of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said he's noticed most of the graffiti tends to show up on weekends, when the downtown area and its bars are alive with revelry.

However, an 11 p.m. curfew is meant to keep potential offenders out of Riverfront Park and away from temptation.

But that's not always the case, and catching people in the act can be difficult because they usually have a lookout who alerts them to police activity, McCall said.

Luckily for Cape Girardeau, the messages scrawled on the floodwall usually aren't gang tags or the other more ominous kinds of artwork seen in larger cities.

"From what I've seen, it's more just mischief," he said.

Since chalk can be removed, it usually doesn't net a court date, but offenders can be given tickets for being caught along the wall after curfew.

However, if more permanent media are used, such as paint or spray paint, graffiti artists can be charged with property damage. The prosecutor decides the degree of the charge based on the extent of the damage, McCall said.

Marla Mills, director of Old Town Cape, said graffiti is just as much of a headache for her historic preservation organization as it is for the city, although she appreciates what the parks department and police do to counteract the activity on the floodwall.

While some scribblings on the wall might be considered art, the majority of it is usually banal or profane.

"And even art, if not in the right place, is a challenge," Mills said, especially when it finds its way onto historic buildings. Often these buildings' bricks were manufactured in such a way that removing paint or other modern media can be expensive.

"Part of our effort is to educate people about that," she said.

Luckily, she said, the murals on the other side of the floodwall have fared well so far. It's Old Town Cape's job to keep them up, while the parks department is charged with maintaining the side of the wall facing the river.

"Fortunately, the murals and the sanctioned pieces of art on the floodwall have been spared that," Mills said.

ljones@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3652

Pertinent address:

Riverfront Park, Cape Girardeau, MO