New Haven Independent

“They came around 10:30,” she said Sunday afternoon, “a clean up crew and a lot of veterans. It’s the second time they came to clean.”

You might think that the food vendors, who spend long hours near the memorials, would catch a glimpse of those who defaced the stones, but that’s not the case.

“We’ve never seen them putting up the graffiti, whoever did it.” Sanchez said. By “we” she meant the operators of the half-dozen other trucks that line up daily on the boulevard to sell tacos, burritos, and other food with the taste of home. “They really should put up those cameras. They always do it when no one’s around.”

By early afternoon Sunday, a Great Black-Backed Gull, surely meaning no disrespect, was one of dozens already at work leaving nature’s graffiti on the Korean War Memorial. Perhaps something might be done about this as well.

Neither the warm weather, which brought out the birds, nor the clean up crews, however, made for a very profitable day, said Sanchez. “We always hope for better one tomorrow.”