Tuesday, November 21, 2006

My Question...


Thanks for the suggestions made for my question including those who e-mailed them. I have just laid down this, based upon the first "annonymous" suggestion:

Councillor LITTLE to ask:
The city's street furniture and many of our suburban areas suffer from a lot of grafitti, including much by a few graffiti gangs. Does the council believe grafitti is a symptom, measure and further encouragement of Anti Social Behaviour? Can the Executive Member tell us what the council can do to help crack down on grafitti across the City, including any plans to speed up the removal of it?
Picture is of a grafitti tag in Norwich.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The picture is of a stencil, not a 'tag'

Antony said...

Can a stencil not be a tag?

Anonymous said...

Interesting choice.

I think the way forward is a combination of remunerative punishment and selective legalisation.

I’m sure there’re other people out there who think that skilled graffiti in designated areas is simply public art work, and adds to the culture and visual appeal of often bland concrete-clad areas.

And like I mentioned previously (something’s telling me this example’s wrong) - Edward Street I think it is? The graffiti on the walls of the car park; looks very structured and organised so I’m guessing permission was given for it. Either way, it brightens up what is otherwise a dull and under developed area. It’s not uncommon for people to move seats on the bus in the morning to get a view.

There are many unused surfaces in Norwich you could divide up into ‘graffiti’ allotments and offer up for booking by prospective artists, either free or for a nominal fee. If one was feeling particularly idealistic, you could expand it to include competitions and judging. With the ability to display graffiti legally and in public, surely this will do at least something towards discouraging graffiti-ing on private property and elsewhere?

How about on the paving? Gentleman’s Walk? Anyone remember Julian Beever? (google him)

Then, on the other edge of the sword, get offenders to remove the offending pieces from non-authorized places. A youth community service style sentence.

I know it sounds very out of touch with the culprits of graffiti, and it may well be that their only motivation for committing such crimes is the thrill of deviance, but I really feel such solutions are worth consideration.

Storming in guns-blazing may well get the desired effect, and no doubt very quickly, but I can’t help thinking it’ll be costly, but most importantly, ineffective in the long run.

I fear my optimism and idealism are lost on the world. Again.

*sigh*

Anonymous said...

Excellent question. Grafitti is an unwelcome fact of life. We need hit teams that remove it as quickly as it is recorted and put up. Preferably by those caught tagging grafitti, those undertaking their hours of Community Service, or those who breach their ASBO's or ABCs.

Anonymous said...

Can do, but tagging more commonly refers to some sort of signature or nickname drawn freehand. Stencils take the art out of it, and i suppose the "street cred".

Anonymous said...

How about giving these people somewhere for them to do their art. Pointless tagging is worth stopping, but some graffiti is worth seeing. See Banksy for examples.

Anonymous said...

I agree that 95% of graffitti is talentless and gang generated and should be cracked down on.

I also beleive their should be provision of Official community graffitti surfaces, as a legitimate outlet for the grafitti art with guidlelines and education of property rights. As above annon. suggested, 5% quality artistic organised grafitti is a throught provoking expression, different from tagging.