Graffiti Surged During the Pandemic. Cities Are Playing Catch Up to Remove It.

BALTIMORE—Eric Ford and Tony Clark rolled up to the defaced yellow crosswalk sign marked with graffiti tags and stickers.

They used a solvent to wipe away the scrawled words and then scraped off the stickers and brushed on fresh paint. Within 10 minutes, the stalwarts of Baltimore’s graffiti removal program had largely erased the evidence of vandalism, and moved on to the next job.