You suddenly discover graffiti spray-painted in vivid colors on your front curb, parkway or street.
Damn those teenage taggers or gang members? No, blame those utility or municipal workers marking locations for upgrading or repairing neighborhood infrastructures.
Next come the hard-hat workers, barricades, cones and machinery to jackhammer, dig and install before replacing what was disturbed.
Hey, that’s life in the big city. Get used to it.
But wait. The curb, parkway or street is back to normal—except for the damned graffiti.
Most of the indelible arrows, stripes and unintelligible codes in fluorescent red, orange, blue and green still stains your frontage.
Ugly, ugly, ugly. And it will remain there for months, perhaps even years.
Ordinances ought to specify that such markings be obliterated when projects are completed. (29 JUNE 2008)