tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post4824273823624094867..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Allowing invited graff best way to reduce unwanted graffitiGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-7727676056727459592008-07-29T14:57:00.000-05:002008-07-29T14:57:00.000-05:00Another San Antonio opinion here--it seems to me t...Another San Antonio opinion here--it seems to me that the most aggravating graffiti is not on public property or even commercial property--it's the tags and "art" on private homes (not just fences but someone's house). I wonder if graffiti artists could work within their community to reduce this type of tagging, which surely creates a huge amount of ill-will and negative public opinion. I do believe in the value of free public art and often photograph great examples of stencil graffiti. However, a name spray-painted in three foot-high letters across our back porch just pisses me off.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-18861977539036686752008-07-29T07:25:00.000-05:002008-07-29T07:25:00.000-05:00Look at it this way: Right now SA is trying the en...Look at it this way: Right now SA is trying the enforcement only approach and you're describing the results - it doesn't work.<BR/><BR/>There are <A HREF="http://www.dirtythirdstreets.com/" REL="nofollow">various sorts of graffiti </A>that don't lend themselves to a one size fits all description or solution. I can't speak so much for SA, but in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Corpus, and elsewhere there are a significant number of more artistic graff writers who do a LOT of wall writing and posting handbills, etc..<BR/><BR/>More importantly, if there's a more substantial invited graff mural, the workaday taggers who're just scrawling signs tend to leave it alone. Put a graff mural at the site where you routinely see scrawls, and I bet that person would move to another spot. (See the example of Mr. Allard in the post.)<BR/><BR/>Bottom line: Some graff writers are motivated by self expression and others by anti-social vandalism. The former are the ones for whom providing alternatives might help. For the latter, all the legal penalties are still there if it's possible to catch them. Usually it's not, though, so the only available option is rapid cleanup. There's no downside, in other words, to adding the invited graffiti strategy to the repertoire.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-85382068363456475082008-07-28T23:57:00.000-05:002008-07-28T23:57:00.000-05:00If there's a smarter-not-harder way to reduce graf...If there's a smarter-not-harder way to reduce graffiti, then I'm all for it. But I'm not sure I agree with your position that providing graffiti walls, as it were, is the solution. It seems like you're proceeding from the premise that much graffiti is artistic, and there simply needs to be an outlet for that artistic expression. In my experience, virtually all the graffiti I see in San Antonio (and it seems to be increasing, a lot), consists of indecipherable scrawls. I don't see anything that looks like a kid seeking an artistic outlet. Sure, there's the occasional mural, depending on what part of town you're in, but those are obviously done by people with an artistic bent. The scribbles that show up on my apartment building on a weekly basis aren't done by the same hand. I'd love to know what the solution for the vandalism-oriented graffiti is, but I doubt it's if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-em.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com