CLEVELAND — If you drive down Woodbine Avenue and West 38th Street, you'll likely see hot pink graffiti spray painted riddled throughout the area.
While we visited that part of Ohio City on Tuesday, we saw the same hot pink spray paint and tag on the garage of a home, the backside of the Ohio City Brew Stop, two apartment buildings, and what appeared to be an old fire station.
One of those tagged apartment buildings is owned by Moria Kemp. She's owned it for 12 years.
Prior to owning it, she lived in that same apartment building as a child, and her father owned it.
"[It's] pretty eclectic. There's a lot of history. It's really rich in culture and arts. It's a good mix of people. Generations have lived there but then also you have a lot of younger kind of professionals moving in. It's a really neat blend of people," Kemp told me Tuesday night.
She said she loves owning the apartment building she does in Ohio City because it has a sentimental value to it.
However, the nostalgia of the building has now been tainted as someone has spray painted the side of it saying, "In the kingdom of love, there is no competion."
"It hurts," Kemp explained. "It was very disheartening."
Kemp was out of town when she received pictures of her defaced building from two of her tenants on Sunday.
"It kind of never fails, like you try to enjoy a brief break with your family and this definitely kind of ruins that. I was very upset when I found out my building got hit, but then to see the devastation throughout the neighborhood, that there's several houses. That is just a person going on a rampage of spray painting and this isn't commercial buildings. These are people's homes," Kemp said.
She shared that she feels violated both physically and financially.
Kemp added she had just painted the side of her building as well as repaired it less than six months ago. She said that alone cost her $20,000.
"I can't just go fix it in two minutes, especially this time of year. It has to be the right temperature and things like that. [The tenants] literally have to live there with that on their building. It's time away from my family to go up and fix it. It's frustrating. It's frustrating because we pay so much for the city registration, and property taxes just increased, and then it's like, well, where's help for this when things like that happen?" Kemp stated.
Kemp had hoped to commission a local artist to paint the side of her building later down the road, but she said she no longer wants to because of this incident.
"I couldn't even imagine having actual commissioned work on there, somebody's art and having it defaced that way. It's going to cost me a lot to repair and anybody who thinks it's $5 does not know what Sherwin Williams exterior paint costs. It's not as easy. Some people say scrub it off. It's hot pink paint on white paint. It's going to take several coats. It's time, effort, lots of money," Kemp added.
Kemp plans to file a police report with the Cleveland Police Department as she sees the damage as a criminal offense.
"I think charges are acceptable in this situation considering that so many houses were hit," Kemp explained. "There needs to be accountability. The person probably needs help that did this. That's an acceptable thing. I'm not out to arrest everybody, but society has rules and we have to follow them. If it was yours, you wouldn't want that on your property."
We'll continue to follow through.
