Bridgeland businesses targeted by taggers

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A post-Christmas grinches’ graffiti spree is being countered with community spirit after a dozen businesses were tagged in the Bridgeland area over the weekend.

Sometime on late Saturday night-early Sunday morning, vandals sprayed black and white graffiti onto a dozen businesses along 1 Ave. in the inner-city neighbourhood as well as on the Bridgeland-Riverside Community Association hall and on at least one vehicle.

The culprits didn’t stop there, said community association president Brian Beck.

“The Christmas tree by the skating rink was stolen by someone who cut its wires, but it was retrieved after being found in a nearby park,” said Beck.

“We’ve been on the receiving end of this kind of thing before, but this is pretty extensive.”

On the side of the soon-to-open Village Ice Cream shop, vandals defaced existing artwork, said Beck.

“Between spraying over artwork and an act of cutting down a Christmas tree, it’s more in the nature of being hurtful than expressive,” he said.

Some of those businesses hit by the vandals are already hurting or closed due to the pandemic and having to clean up the graffiti “adds insult to injury,” said Beck.

Community association board member Ali McMillan tweeted an image of the damage to their building, saying it was done at a time when they’ve been inactive due to COVID-19 and don’t “have funds to repair.”