The Truth About Murals

Often large cities with graffiti problems sponsor mural programs as an attempt to beautify an area or a street.

In my experience in the Vancouver region, the results have been at best mixed.

In some cases the murals are respected by "Taggers" who often admire the piece as well as the mural artist. This however often leads to attention getting behaviour as the tagger will graffiti the areas surrounding the mural to give the mural artist his "props" and gain notice for him/herself. As a consequence, the surrounding area, particularly transit stops and utility installations become regularly bombed.

What if some "Taggers" don't like the mural or the mural artist? The answer can be seen in the photo above. Often competing groups of "Taggers" will tag or even bomb a mural because of some inane and neverending youthful spat. These guys can hold grudges for years. Let me paraphrase Captain Jack Sparrow.

"The second group retaliated against the first group who was only retaliating from the last retaliation and whose only option now is to retaliate with a retaliatory strike. Savvy?!"

Two final points

1. Who are these mural artists? How did they get to be so good at painting the outside of buildings? Perhaps they have spent many years illegally tagging private and public property as practice? Should they then be rewarded with public monies? Should criminal behaviour be financially rewarded?
2. Even the most recent study (as well as many others) conclude that "Rapid Removal" is the most effective graffiti prevention tool in our arsenal.

DTagr

Erie Graffiti Strategic Intelligence Report