Lower Don Sign II

Latest cleaning job gets rid of most graffiti

I am kind of ambivalent about interpretive signs in the Don these days. At first I thought these were a great idea. Educate the public, raise awareness about the natural environment, etc. Unfortunately not everyone is so high-minded. These signs have attracted an unusual amount of vandalism in the form of graffiti tags. Some of the signs have become so bad they are unreadable. The city does not have the resources to keep up with the maintenance and removal has been haphazard at best. The result is a sad collection of ugly signage in the Don.

The sign on the Lower Don Trail just north of the Riverdale Park footbridge has been the unlucky target for the worst of the tagging. After a couple of attempts at getting the city to clean it up and at least one time when I cleaned it myself, I have given up on this sign. That was 16 months ago. However, as I passed by it yesterday I noticed that it has been cleaned up once again. Most of the paint has been removed and the sign is now legible again (although you can still see it has been through the wars).

Sadly I expect this sign will be covered in another month with a new coating of graffiti. It may be time to rethink our signage strategy for the Lower Don.