Frustration is growing among Chinatown businesses in Oakland, California over thousands of dollars in fines they’ve been assessed due to graffiti on their property.
Merchants are now pleading for the city, urging them to go after the taggers and not them.
“So many times we clean they come again,” said Shirly Lou, the manager at Wong Kee Supermarket said to NBC Bay Area. “We are the victims.”
The market currently owes the city $3,000 in fines, including late fees.
Stewart Chen of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council told CBS5 the supermarket’s story is a familiar one to Chinatown merchants who face similar citations.
“I think it’s beyond our capacity to just clean it up. We will have a separate unit called the graffiti abatement OCIC, my organization will start cleaning the graffiti, but what is going to keep the taggers from coming back, that’s on you, the city,” said Chen.
“We close at 4 o’clock when we go home, and we cannot watch people do things like that. We can’t. So, the city has to help,” said Susan Lam, Oakland business owner.
ABC7 reports that Rep Lateefa Simon has taken the issue to the city and hopes when a new mayor is elected to replace ousted Mayor Sheng Thao that it will be addressed.
She says Oakland must do everything possible to make sure its retailers stay in business.
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