Last fall, then-Portland Commissioner Rene Gonzalez promised to restore the city’s pride by enacting “meaningful penalties” against graffiti vandals whose spray-painted scribbles marred countless buildings, street signs and overpasses.
“Unfortunately, the current lack of consequences for these perpetrators has emboldened them,” Gonzalez said on social media.
Last month, Gonzalez’s tough-on-crime proposal — which would have slapped taggers with a new misdemeanor offense and a minimum sentence of seven days in jail or 50 hours of community service — failed to come to a vote before Gonzalez left office…