Our partners at SeattleCrime have details on a new analysis of graffiti based on observations made on Capitol Hill, First Hill and beyond that blows away some conventional wisdom about tagging — and makes the case for a big increase in anti-graffiti efforts in Seattle:
…the auditor’s office found “556 instances of graffiti” in a one-day count, only five of which were apparent gang tags. The Auditor’s office also claims they “did not find any instances of what could be called artistic tagging (“street art”),” but I find that hard to believe.
Despite the auditor’s office’s seemingly anti-graffiti stance, their report also busts at least one big myth: That taggers and graffiti artists hit private businesses and property owners the hardest.
In fact, the auditor’s office “found that public property was nearly twice as commonly tagged as private property,” with traffic and street signs, utility poles, and pay stations being most frequently targeted.
According to SeattleCrime, the city reports that it paid $1.8 million dollars on graffiti cleanup in 2009, and 300 survey respondents spent a total of $232,000 to remove graffiti.
The report was prepared by the City Auditor’s office at the request of City Council members Tom Rasmussen and Tim Burgess and is not planned to be released until the end of the month. SeattleCrime obtained an early version of the report — you can check out the entire document attached to their post. The report makes nine recommendations. No word from the City Council, yet, on how they will put these recommendations into action. One recommendation not on the list: Creating citizen cell phone patrols. It’s a trend on Capitol Hill, apparently.
1) Updating Seattle’s laws to make stickering a form of graffiti.
2) Clarify how restitution is calculated for graffiti-ers who get busted
3) Have SPD Parking Enforcement Officers record and report graffiti while on shift
4) Create a graffiti database within the police department
5) Dedicate one detective to “apprehend and prosecute graffiti vandals” as part of a two-year pilot project.
6) Develop diversion programs for taggers
7) Redeploy and reassign some responsibilities to employees within the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Public Utilities’ Graffiti Rangers program
8) Create a coalition of city employees and community groups to perform community outreach and educate the public about graffiti
9. Continue to study graffiti removal statistics in Business Improvement Areas.
Interesting that buses were not included on this study. Im so tired of dumb&sses scratching at the bus.
Good to see they are at least acknowledging the problem though!
Also, part of the solution needs to be that the offenders should have to spend many, many hours scrubbing off the paint with a small brush. Then maybe they’ll think twice about adding more tags to their chore list. Who disagrees with that?
I like the idea of having transgressors spending hours scrubbing away with a tiny brush.
I wonder what fraction of the graffiti community would go for publicly-approved graffiti locations? Does the breaking of laws/spoilage of property constitute 90% of the pleasure they get from it? I’m obviously a noob about this stuff… but I’m pro art, a lot of graffiti is art, and I’d like to see more of it/less expense for the community.
$1.8 million dollars to remove graffiti. That’s sickening.
The money could have been spent on our parks, community centers, homeless and youth aid agencies, or so many other things to improve our urban communities. Instead it went to clean up tagging done by what I’ve heard is mostly privileged suburban kids. Anyone caught should be prosecuted on the grounds of stealing from the community, in addition to the vandalism charges. Forced community service in addition to 100+ hours of graffiti removal work.
You live in the City. Graffiti happens.
Seattle should follow Chicago’s highly effective example and have a dedicated, relentless cleanup crew that removes graffiti as soon as it appears, all day every day. When the taggers learn that their efforts are in vain and nobody will see their, uh, work, they give up and the problem quickly diminishes.
Such an approach would make the city much lovelier and cost WAY less than $2 million.
Not sure where I had originally heard that it was best to remove tags as soon as possible ( to prevent additional or competing tagging ), but I took it to heart, and remove them ASAP. Tags on my fences now happen very infrequently, but it took a bit of persuation before I convinced my neighbors to do the same. Once they realized they were getting repeated tags, while I was scating free, they started watching, and removing tags ASAP too. Now, we all seem to have seen a major drop in tagging, at least on our block.
Wishing you well in your efforts!
tagging is illegal. graffiti is art. a colorful graffiti peice is sort of like a puzzle, can you figure out what it says? it really isnt that hard. but its something to look at, right? would you rather have a crappy boring wall or a large and colorful graffiti peice to break from the dullness? im a graffiti artist. i dont go and tag fences, churches, or anything at all really. i stay to the legal spots. buying canvasses would be ineffective. why buy a large peice of canvas to paint on when the walls outside are free? the life of a canvas isnt that long. itll tear and the paint will crack if you roll it up. alot of people just want to be known around town, marking territory. its friggin stupid, i agree. a graffiti artist goes through phases, they start out with the most basic form of graffiti, tagging. then they go to bubble letters, and then to intricate peices. if there was a legal wall on every block, the graffiti problem would diminish. graffiti will always be a problem, but itll provide kids a place to do their sh^t. when you stick to a peice of paper, you go stir crazy. there are only so many techniques you can use. there are so many different things you can do with a can. and there are other methods of graffiti. wheatpastes for example, can great really intricate. ive seen some really nice ones around seattle. england has some really amazing art that is illegal. Banksy is a wittty vandal. everybody loves his art. nobody ever really covers it up. Space Invada does mosaics of the original space invaders video game and sticks them places because he has a message: advertising is invading our spaces. we are constantly trying to be sold something with a billboard or a neon or led sign, the colors and everything about these advertisments are attracting out attention. he is making fun of the invading aspect of these advertiments. he is invading the public space with something creative and colorful but without selling something. its just something fun to look at.
a graffiti wall is like a skate park. if you drive by a skatepark, notice how many kids arnt out in the streets f^cking up ledges and curbs and breaking peices of cement out of the ground. if we have more graffiti walls where anybody can go and do their stuff, and have fun and relax while doing it, people will get more creative. things will evolve. instead of fighting it, lets encourage it and see where it takes us. when my dad disowned me for doing graffiti when i was 12, i just wanted to write more. when my mom started encouraging it, i stopped doing it illegally.
if you suspect your child is a tagger, encourage them to do it legally. give them supplies, a place to paint, get out there in gloves and a gas mask and coveralls if you want and create something with them. graffiti isnt the bad part, its the tagging. encourage their artistic sie instead of punishing them for it.
graffiti is more then just letters. i love doing cartoons, stencils, wheatpastes, and making sculptures out of my old used paintcans. i want people to stop thinking so INSIDE THE BOX about it, expand your mind.
the fact that they found no instances of anything with artistic value is bullsh^t. its subjective. if the person they are sending out is very one sided about what is art, like traditional french oil paintings from the 1700s, of course they arnt going to find anything. its subjective. id like them to send out a bunch of art critics, people that specialize in examining art.
if we make more graffiti walls, seattle will spend less money tracking vandals and covering over their crap and more money doing something really awesome for the city, maybe cleaning up the streets and spending more money on the police force and fixing or replacing the deteriorating viaduct. fight art with art, right?