With all this talk about graffiti, this City needs a plan and priorities in dealing with graffiti. Whether you like it or not, graffiti on public or private property is illegal if for no other reason that all art visible from the public right of way is subject to the approval of the Cultural Affairs Commission. So, all street art lovers - even if a modern-day DaVinci painted (bear with me here) a portrait of a modern-day Mona Lisa on a public wall and everyone loved it, it would still need permission from the City or else it would be illegal. So, how to handle graffiti...
First, on the freeways and offramps - Caltrans has limited resources for removal, which is why the area is so often graffitied. A good point was made, though: permitted (like it or not) murals should be protected. Additionally, safety-impairing creations (like those obscuring directional or other messages) should be addressed promptly, as well.
Now, as for private property in the City - each owner is responsible for graffiti removal on their property or may be subject to citation by the City's Department of Building & Safety. Information on how to combat it can be found on the LAPD website and the ordinance explaining the responsibility of the owner can be found here.
So, my suggested Graffiti/Street Art Strategy:
1. Protect and make "permitted" art a priority: All Graffiti from murals should be removed within 24 hours.
2. Target the most visible areas with rapid-response graffiti removal: this would include freeway under/over-crossings, off/on-ramps, freeway & City signs, public walls, and areas on major, heavily traveled corridors. The gateways to communities are also a high priority area to keep clean.
3. Hold private property owners accountable and to the same standard as the government. This would require the government to set the example.
4. Enact a coordinated effort with all government agencies to adopt the priorities for graffiti removal. One was once formed and acted as a unified front to the issue as a regional on via "The Multi-Agency Graffiti Intervention Committee" or MAGIC. It was comprised of Caltrans, L.A. County, the County Sheriff's Dept, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, the Los Angeles Police Dept, and Operation Clean Sweep (now the Office of Community Beautification) out of Public Works among other agencies and jurisdictions in the county. The committee used to meet monthly to share information regarding graffiti vandalism and find ways to work cooperatively to address these issues. The committee has no record of meeting since November of 2005.(I've sent an email to the coordinator to see what's become of the program - I'll keep you posted.)
5. Create acceptable spaces for Street Art to be practiced, produced, & displayed. It doesn't have to be regulated; just allocate space that's OK to paint and repaint. If it was known that the art would be removed every Monday morning with a fresh slate, people could practice their craft (somewhat like knowing that flowers are removed every week from cemeteries, no matter when they were placed).
Without a plan of action, we could lose more permitted art, like the Freeway Lady, who was neglected & abandoned by the property owner. Setting Graffiti and Street Art priorities & strategy in reacting to it will enhance our community, but we can't just say no more expression - it's just a question of where such expression is appropriate.
See other City Nerd opinions on graffiti here, here, & here.
6 comments:
I think if you get caught for doing graffiti you should get a $100 tax addition every year, for the rest of your life. Don't throw people in jail for graffiti because that's just more tax payer moneys. But i'm 100% that this "plan" will not change a thing.
A call to the City the other day revealed that the definition of "private property" changes, depending on how hard it is to place blame.
For two weeks on our east LA block sat a graffiti-slathered construction dumpster.
It was probably owned by a company that rented it to a contractor who was hired by the property owner.
But it was on the street, not on the property.
Ergo, too hard to place blame, and there the graffit sat.
The person who wrote this plan does not seem to understand much about graffiti OR the politics of taxation and how tax funds are distributed in our government.
In case the writer of this article didnt know the city already has tacitly designated "practice areas." The most famous of them currently are the venice beach walls for which the city has actually created a space. The other spaces are simply tolerated because they are out of view and are located in out of the way areas known pretty much only to taggers who call them "yards." Yards could be abandoned buildings, alleys, bridges... The average citizen will never see a yard because it is rarely within view of the critical public. One exception was the view-able space called the Belmont tunnel located north of downtown at an old santa fe train yard. This spot existed for 25 years as a "practice area" and did nothing to stem the surrounding region of graffiti.
Throwing TAX money at the problem by spending it on buffing (erasing) the graffiti is like having venerial warts removed off your genitals... you've temporarily taken care of the visual problem but the virus is still present and could pop up at any time.... in other words it is NOT a cure.The REAL solution will come from addressing the reasons WHY a kid would start writing graffiti in the first place. In my experience, I believe a lot of it has to do with empowerment issues, avenues of expresion, self esteem... but the MAIN culprit I believe has to do with our cultures media outlets and fascination with celbrity and money.If you look at the birth of American style fame graffiti in the late 60's and the spread of it from big city to big city it's obvious what motivates it and that is our culture of advertising and celebrity worship.
Since the 1950's the amount of billboard advertising on the streets has sky rocketed. Everywhere you go you are forced to read "their" messages and see "their" advertising... On tv commercial time has also skyrocketed. Over this same time span the public focus has become extremely concentrated on news about celebrities, sports and various entertainment figures. This facilitates a culture of want or competition to be "famous" or "heard" or "known..." If you constantly see people in the news you begin to think to yourself "hey I want to be there too..." But most people are not in the right networks, receive the proper education or have access through relatives and are thus basically left with a hopeless feeling in terms of ever reaching the fame that they are constantly reminded of by our major media. Of course kids will soon invent ways to combat that feeling.... How do you satisfy a need for fame and fortune that has been programmed into you from birth by television and billoard advertisements??
It's no wonder that kids who are not presented with the same options that the priveledged few in our media have are now participating in their own systems of "fame and fortune" complete with a set of rules and media outlets one of which happens to be graffiti writing. I'm not necessarily defending the defacement of people's property - although I do admire what these guys do - I am just providing an explanation of some of the root causes.
What is the answer? I know it's not anything that has been done so far... It's NOT going to be teaching kids to be sports stars or celebrities... only a certain few will ever achieve those kind of lofty goals.... I think it has something to do with teaching kids that celebrity is not important. I think it has to do with evening the playing field of advertisements and the influence of money on our culture. I think it has to do with curbing our children's television habits, curbing the power of money interests and their influence in media and with curbing what the news calls news....
-too tall jahmal 50mm Los Angeles
First, in the City of L.A., private property is anything owned by an entity that is not the government (in a nutshell). So, that construction dumpster you refer to is subject to the same rules as other private property visible from public property. I'm sorry that the Street Use Inspectors or LAPD (a SLO) was not there to issue the citation or, if need be, impound the bin. Also, those bins need permits, but many do not have them (that's a whole other issue, though).
As for too tall jahmal's well-put comments...
I want to reiterate that the issue that bothers me most is that the perception of graffiti - be it art, expression, territory-marking, any of the above, or none of the above - is that our city is "crime ridden." I set forth these basic steps to point out things can be done with our current resources to address the issue of ruined murals and neglected properties. But, you're right; that's only half of it. Something needs to be done to allow creative expression. And it's there that I'm not sure what to do or how to approach it. I hope your ideas are some that can be implemented - further suggestions would be great.
Combine City of Los Angeles, County Of Los Angeles, METRO, SPARC, Self Help Graphics, MOMA and other groups to form a committee to "tag" certain murals that represent mural development, growth and artistic integrity. Have a law that makes marking, tagging or vandalizing a noted art piece that represents the city or muralism a severe crime. What is the penalty for marking art in a museum? Felony?
May not stop all of it, but would get attention.
Also, suing the property owners who just let the blight pile up -- for either public or private nuisance -- would be a good idea. We are facing this issue on my block -- a private school put up a half block long cinderblock wall and left it blank. For the last 2 years it has been hit by taggers several times a week, and the unkempt dirt strip right next to the wall has become a transient encampment (whose residents regularly trespass on the neighbors' property, but we can't get LAPD to come out). We have tried for two years to ask politely to get the wall vined and the strip planted and have been blown off again and again. What alternative do we have???
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