By Arthur Williams - Prince George Free Press
Strathcona Avenue resident Max Stelmacker is hoping a community organization will step forward to tidy up the new Highway 16 underpass.
The $900,000 underpass was built last year to provide access from Carrie Jane Gray Park to Strathcona Avenue. The walls of the underpass are covered in graffiti and the floor is strewn with broken glass, garbage and debris. At least once the lights in the tunnel have been smashed by vandals.
“It would be a compliment to call it graffiti. This stuff is just obscene,” Stelmacker said. “I think the people at the city... shouldn’t allow this neglect to happen.”
Stelmacker said he noticed the graffiti appearing shortly after the tunnel opened. The graffiti includes a number of racial slurs and sexually explicit images and words.
“The main users are kids going to school. The kids are people, they have as much right as any to a mental environment that’s healthy,” Stelmacker said.
Stelmacker sent photos of the vandalism to the city, and some repairs were made. However, the vandalism has continued unchecked.
He applied for a $1,000 Communities in Bloom grant to get local artists or students to paint a mural in the tunnel as a deterrent to vandalism. However, he was unable to find a community organization willing to take on the challenge and Communities in Bloom grants cannot be awarded to individuals.
“It was a little bit frustrating because I approached these organizations and they weren’t able to catch the momentum of it,” Stelmacker said.
Megan Nielson said she uses the underpass regularly to go to school and work, and is sometimes intimidated by what she sees happening there.
“I sometimes get to see when it (vandalism) is happening. It is a little bit intimidating to go into this tunnel in the dark. I’m always watching my back,” Nielson said. “I think it’s pretty sad and pathetic that some people have to write this stuff.”
Nielson said a mural or even graffiti art would be a major improvement to the tunnel.
Joggers Karen McKay and Nancy Dilon said they apply “tunnel vision,” when going through the underpass.
“It’s the smell and things on the ground that bother me,” McKay said. “(But) it’s a lot better than trying to cross the highway.”
