Taking It Off, Taking It All Off

Todd Waelterman’s topped the Streets Department for the last seven years; he’s also about a year shy of a quarter century working for the City of St. Louis. Over those many years, he’s seen (and overseen) a lot of projects. And his memories of Paint Louis at the end of the ‘90s and into the new decade are certainly still fresh in his mind.

“Mayor (Clarence) Harmon was here,” he remembers. “As part of our operation, we maintain the flood walls for the City of St. Louis. That’s a big canvas, a big chunk of wall that people want to hop on and tag. The Mayor routed to us a request to allow painting on the walls near Chouteau. When Paint Louis (originally) happened, it brought in a lot of people who painted on railroad cars and MODOT bridges all over the region. They left us quite a mess. It was a nasty, little mess they left down there.”