New team tasked with removing James River graffiti: 'It’s heartbreaking'

RICHMOND, Va. -- There is a new team of graffiti removal specialists at work along the James River in Richmond. Their goal is to paint over graffiti left left rocks and bridges along the river.

"Unfortunately we’ve been seeing an increase in graffiti in these spaces that we call special," park ranger supervisor Aimee Bushman said. "Generally, if we can tackle it within 48 hours that it pops up, there’s a great chance for it not to occur again. If someone feels like they’ve put a lot of time and effort into this piece and it’s gone immediately, it’s a good deterrent to not come back and to move on somewhere else."

WTVR

While parts of Richmond are supportive and encouraging of graffiti art, Friends of the James River Park executive director Josh Stutz said this isn't that.

"It isn’t all innocent and it’s not all artwork," Josh Stutz said. "Parks are supposed to be welcoming, they’re supposed to be for everybody, and it’s heartbreaking to me that people are, that that’s the people’s first welcome to the park when they get there and they’re having to walk across a bridge that’s covered in all kinds of graffiti that’s offensive to women, it’s offensive to minority, it’s generally offensive, kind of hate speech stuff.”

WTVR

This is the first summer Richmond has had a graffiti removal team along the James River.

“We really don’t want to see any more of it on our natural stuff within the James River Park," Stutz said.

Bushman called the James River an outdoor classroom that needed to be protected and preserved.

"When somebody goes and tags a sign, you’re not only changing the landscape of that space, but you’re also impacting another person’s opportunity to learn and keep that history living," Bushman said.

WTVR

The work is funded by a partnership between CoStar and the Friends of the James River. That funding is for this summer and next summer. If the program proves a success, the Friends of the James River plans to seek additional funding to continue the work.

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