48 Hours of Graffiti on One of Highland Park's Most Hard-to-Find Homes

House No. 501 on Avenue 57 stands on the southeast corner of Aldama Street, a grayish, single-story dwelling surrounded by a tall, white fence. On most afternoons, some vehicle or the other passes it by every minute on average. Yet, because of the way Avenue 57 runs into Aldama and jumps across momentarily before hitting Hub Street and carrying on toward York, the house and its back-to-back neighbor remain almost hidden from view, partly because of the tall fence and also because there are no house numbers on the sidewalk.

That may be part of the reason why graffiti clean-up crews have yet to erase the tag on the Aldama side of 507 N. Ave. 57, more than 48 hours it was first reported to the office of Councilmember Gil Cedillo by Highland Park's foremost graffiti sleuth, Mauro Garcia.

On Wednesday morning, Garcia e-mailed Cedillo's office again, mildly admonishing him and his staff for failing to have the tag on 501 N. Ave. 57 removed, along with another one on a house on 502 N. Ave. 54, near Franklin High School.

Both tags are relatively small--of the two, the one on 501 N. Ave. 57 is smaller--but every bit as disconcerting to civic-minded folks. And while there's every reason to believe that the graffiti crews will get there sooner or later, it wouldn't hurt to say that the Avenue 57 house is really easy to find on Google Maps, where a photo of its Avenue 57/Aldama corner is clearly visible.