I am fond of the fourth avenue bridge, I walk over it often. The bridge is aging nicely since its creation post-earthquake. I like the design concept.  I especially enjoy all the shells and nuts and other remnants of bird meals left on the wide rails. I've already vigiled on it with hundreds of other people. We've claimed this bridge as our own and it will be used once again this Saturday at noon. (Check Rob Whitlock's blog and the events calendar)

So I have mixed feelings about the graffiti that is now all over the bridge railings. Folks might need to get out of their cars and walk to see the graffiti most clearly, not sure how visible it is from a car. On foot, especially walking from west side to downtown as I was, you will be able to see how extensive it is.

I wish it hadn't been done. But I also wish that the Oly community had been included in that "design concept" I spoke of earlier. Would that have made a difference? My guess is that there is not one monolithic graffiti community and that what works for one artist might not for another.

I don't know how to decode this graffiti, I feel sort of left out of the message, although maybe the intent isn't to be inclusive. Whoever has hit the bridge has also worked up on the west side too, some graffiti on utility boxes looks to be from the same source.

Graffiti has significance to the artist and to the community in both positive (expression) and negative ways (defacing).

Kent L. Norman

I am curious, do you all see this graffiti as expression or vandalism?