Paul Harpole became Amarillo’s mayor in 2011 pledging, among other things, to rid the city of graffiti.

He made something of a splash early in his first term as mayor, taking inventories of buildings that had been “tagged” by individuals and/or groups. There was some public discussion about a local lawyer’s property being used — with his permission — as a place where young people could spray-paint their symbols.

Then? I believe the public discussion has fallen mostly silent.

I’ve heard nary a sound from the mayor, from City Hall administrators, from other members of the City Council, from the cops, prosecutors, property owners, nothing.

Is the graffiti problem as bad as it was when Harpole became mayor? Is it worse? Has it gotten so much better that Harpole has declared victory?

Beats me.

The mayor took me on a tour of problem areas around the city. One area is right next to the Plemon-Eakle Historic Neighborhood, which isn’t too far from the tony Wolflin area where many of the city’s old-money elite residents live. He talked about how the city deals with this form of vandalism, how it must get the property owner to clean the mess. He mentioned how complex this process can get at times.

I’ll acknowledge that I don’t frequent very often some of the tougher neighborhoods in town where this kind of activity goes on. Thus, I’m no expert on graffiti. I did attend a day-long seminar recently at Amarillo College’s West Campus that dealt with gang issues in Amarillo. The police officer who led the discussion, Cpl. Steve Powers, displayed plenty of graffiti to those in the audience showing the various identifying marks of gangs that operate around town.

I’m curious as to whether I’ve missed something about the mayor’s war on graffiti.

Did he win? Has he given up?