Tags quickly return after I-84 graffiti cleanup; so do removal crews – and police, who arrest tagger

On a concrete freeway onramp just before Sandy Boulevard, black-and-red letters spelling out “TOASTED” stand boldly over a patch of new tan paint. A few yards away on one of the highway’s barriers, a spray-painting of an animal’s head bares its fangs at cars driving by.

This is I-84 just two days after an overnight graffiti cleanup coordinated by six government agencies shut down the freeway for around 13 hours. The effort to paint over graffiti and perform other maintenance along five miles involved more than 100 workers, officials said.

Early on Tuesday morning, Portland police found people spray-painting on a retaining wall a few feet away from an I-84 onramp at Northeast Broadway and 33rd Avenue, police reported. Officers arrested Asher Bengston, 18.

This response to the cleanup by taggers wasn’t unexpected.

The Oregon Department of Transportation has workers out along the freeway this week to show taggers that, along with the police, they plan to stay on top of the problem. After tags cropped up immediately after the freeway reopened, crews went out Monday and Tuesday to paint over the new illicit art work.

“We expect to see graffiti return in the area, but we also expect to continue to attack graffiti in a more aggressive manner,” said Don Hamilton, ODOT spokesperson.

Crews don’t have a specific schedule for returning to the corridor to cover graffiti but are actively responding to reports both from other ODOT employees and the public, he added.

Diana Collins, an elementary school principal who has lived in Portland for 17 years, said she was happy to see the graffiti removed from along I-84. When she’s driven on the highway in recent months, the sheer amount of graffiti stood out to her.

Though taggers returned right after the cleanup, that didn’t mean the city’s efforts were in vain, she said.

“That’s part of living in a city,” she said. “You have to keep cleaning as you go.”

That philosophy has worked well for the downtown Portland Art Museum, which rarely ever has graffiti on it, said museum spokesperson Ian Gillingham.

The museum has security cameras in place, employs security personnel to keep watch outside the building and removes tags as soon as they show up.

“A big part of the motive of tagging is to have exposure for your tag,” Gillingham said. “If it’s only up for a short time, that’s a disincentive.”

The strategy has kept the museum’s buildings pristine despite prevalent tagging nearby.

Though it’s harder on a freeway, the state transportation department plans to take a similar approach to deter taggers on I-84.

Geolocation is one of the ways the state agency collaborates with police, ODOT regional manager Ted Miller said. Before graffiti-removal crews paint over a tag, they photograph it and add it to a digital database that logs its location. The Police Bureau can access those images so detectives can note the prevalence of specific taggers – and to help them identify the taggers, he said.

Portland police officer Amelia Flohr, who investigates graffiti around the city, said arresting just one tagger creates a ripple effect that deters future graffiti. Taggers often work in teams, and news of one member’s arrest can spread quickly.

“For the past couple of years we’ve put cases together,” she said. “When one person in a crew gets arrested, we have typically not seen their crew members tagging in the city anymore.”

Another idea for reducing graffiti can be found in a December 2023 report from the Portland Central City Task Force, which recommended creating “a few free walls in the central city” where anyone would be allowed to put up art, potentially reducing unauthorized graffiti elsewhere.

The report recommended implementing the walls in 2024. The Governor’s Office did not immediately respond with more details about the proposal.

Whether or not “free walls” come about, ODOT is thinking long-term in its approach to graffiti.

“We will see additional tags coming back,” Hamilton said. “We’re going to continue to address graffiti in the weeks, months and years ahead.”