Somebody tried replacing the obscene anti-Urban Outfitters graffiti in front of the unopened Harvard Avenue store with a more charming love-of-Allston message. Allston City Limits says it's an improvement.

Tim Lyons posts a photo of a jerk tagging Red Line car 01710 this evening (part of a triptych - another and another).

Councilor John Tobin (West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain) plans a hearing on whether the city should stiffen the penalties on people who mark up or otherwise deface "historic landmarks, monuments and structures."

Tobin says one of the reasons to get even tougher on taggers and their ilk for these violations is because graffiti can be harder to remove in general from the brick, brownstone, limestone and marble often used in such landmarks and because "cleaning graffiti from historic properties can require more testing to find the right technique and products to complete the job, which can make the removal more expensive."

Via ParkwayBoston.com.

Cleveland Circle explained. From Boston.com:

MBTA police are investigating the defacing of 14 Green Line trolley cars at the Reservoir Yard in Brighton. ... Nine of the cars have been cleaned and returned to the tracks, Pesaturo said. He said that service was not affected because the T owns a surplus of Green Line cars.

One thing about Mr. Pesaturo. He sure can tell a convincing fib with the best of them.

The Dorchester Reporter reports state workers spent this morning painting over anti-black and anti-gay graffiti and swastikas somebody sprayed along the Neponset Greenway over the weekend:

... "The whole wall down there had graffiti all over it. One of the murals down there had nothing but swastikas on it. They demolished the mural there. We had to wipe it out because it looked so bad," said Stephens.
...

Also on the mailboxes, on walls and on the sidewalks.

Danielle Bremner, 27, of Queens, is due in court this morning on 34 graffiti charges related to incidents last year in the Back Bay.

Also due in court today: Mr. Obey himself, on new charges brought by Boston Police.

Both are due for arrival in separate courtrooms in Boston Municipal Court, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.

Bremner is charged with spray-painting "Utah" between January and June of last year on Commonwealth Avenue and Dartmouth, Exeter, Fairfield, Gloucester and Newbury streets, the DA's office says. She's also wanted on a previous case involving graffiti at the Orient Heights Blue Line stop.

She and her boyfriend face charges around the world for their graffiti:

The Queens couple had reportedly fled to Europe for three months, "where they dined, partied - and tagged their way through 10 or so countries." So their legal problems aren't just in the city, allegedly France seeks to prosecute them.

Bremner was arrested on the Boston charges in October.

Innocent, etc.

A man already facing numerous gun charges was arraigned today on new charges that he spray-painted racist graffiti and a call to assassinate the president on a black man's house, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

John Sieckarski, 49, had his bail on the gun charges revoked following his arraignment in Chelsea District Court this morning, the DA's office says.

Sieckarski, arrested on 22 counts of illegal gun possession and improper gun storage in November, is charged with spray painting a former neighbor's house with a variety of anti-black slogans, including one advising him to die, and another declaring that Barack Obama should be "assinated" (sic).

The DA's office says it is considering civil-rights charges and that the Secret Service has been notified.

Innocent, etc.

The Crimson reports that when the night was done at a Chinese Students Association "graffiti-themed party" Friday night, organizers were outraged to discover that some of the wall messages were anti-Chinese.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, or, in the case of the Arborway overpass by the Forest Hills T stop, when somebody paints over some graffiti, take advantage of that by drawing a head and hands atop the "body" (his left hand is actually on the other side of the pillar). He's been there for several months now, too.