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Clintonville Area Commissioner David Southan proposed to the University Area Commission a joint program to combat graffiti in the neighboring communities during April’s UAC meeting. Commissioner Southan has helped to raise $1500 reward money to be used in the prosecution and conviction of graffiti related crimes. The reward money has been granted successfully over the years to people who have reported on graffiti crimes in Clintonville, and it is being considered for expansion into the University District. “Commissioner Southan has always challenged us to look at new ways to tackle the growing problem of graffiti in the University District,” said UAC President Ian MacConnell. “I think his offer on a partnership across community lines is something we need to support.”
“Graffiti is a crime that undermines public safety and has a negative impact on our quality of life,” said CAC Commissioner Southan. “I believe we need to work together if we are going to be successful in addressing this crime.”
This would not be the first time representatives from both area commissions have worked together. Over the years Southan and MacConnell have testified in court on the impact graffiti has on a community, and as a result tougher sentences have been passed down to those who have been convicted. They have also worked with the University Area Enrichement Association’s Graffiti Abatement Project (GAP) to have convicted graffiti painters clean-up litter and graffiti in the adjoining communities.
“We are also considering raising funds for microgrants to help cover part of the expense related to large scale graffiti clean-ups,” said MacConnell. “Not only will we be in the court room to connect vandals to all of their tags for tougher sentencing, we want to help the victims as well.”
It’s good that they’re doing this, but Weinland Park is really the place to focus on, especially with gang-related graffiti. Some low-income neighborhoods could really use this too, as residents might fear for their physical safety if they’re seen painting over such graffiti. On another note, I think the University Area Commission holds enough sway to kick out undesirable residents and landlords, but for some reasn doesnt care enough to do so.
I get the impression there used to be a graf code of honor that isn’t around here. I love some of the graf aesthetics, but can’t stand when independent businesses are tagged with some suburban dipshits goofy tag. You’re not fightin “the man” by taggin a chinese restaurant on campus. You’re just being an ass and junkin up a hard working person’s business.
This good, but as far as graffitti undermining public safety? What the hell does that even mean? They need to get their talking points together.
@JonMyers;
The mere presence of graffiti doubles the number of people littering and stealing in a neighborhood, new research suggests.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27825380/from/ET/
This city really needs more public places that are open and legal for people to tag, or do more elaborate pieces. I heard that Tuttle Park has something like this. Columbus needs more public art, and this is a cheap way to get it!
There is this weird dichotomy going on in this city. I constantly hear about people wanting “street art” in their houses, or people wanting to do graffiti-style painting at festivals (hmmm?). But everybody still hates actual “illegal” graffiti, and no matter how cool it might be visually they want to cover it up and castrate whoever did it.
I could say more on that, but it would probably get me in trouble.
Since the dawn of our species wherever there is a pristine surface man has wanted to leave his mark. It’s an instinct that some of us have to let others know that we passed before them. It cannot be suppressed, but it can be mitigated. If there were more places in the city where people were free to leave their mark without recrimination, then there would be no excuses anymore.
(I don’t get that “public safety” talk either? Unless they’re solely talking about gang graffiti?)
Sounds like they are sort of subscribing to the “Broken Windows” theory
I’ve started to see more graffiti in the area…mostly on street signs and trashcans. In our part of the City it is said to be gang-related, so while I agree there needs to be an artistic outlet, I don’t think gang members are worried about that.
And buckeyeaviator….it doesn’t appear that we are subscribing to the “broken windows” theory at all does it?
I will say that from the standpoint of graffiti artist there is a huge demand for graffiti art and aesthetic both in public and private. I get calls and emails almost on a weekly basis for comission jobs and that only seems to increase as the weather gets nicer. I know a good number of people on this board own my work and love it. This list would even include several city officials. Thye desire for the aesthetic is for sure in demand.
As for the comments about broken window theory and the studies that say that graffiti increases the number of small crimes. That study was created to prove a point and di that, but in no way are graffiti artists or graffiti art responsible for the crimes. Can you prosecute a painting for a murder or robery. Seriously if you subscrib to that theory you may be more of a problem to society than a graffiti artist.
In respect to gang related graffiti! if you think that the tag is the worst part of the problem wait till you face the said gangster with a gun in hand and an empty stomach and you will wish he just had a spray paint can. The gang is the real problem there and the graffiti disappears when to police deal with the gang problem. If you focus on the graffiti you allow far worse crimes to occur by the gang. If you treat all based upon the worst apple in the bunch you will struggle to find sucess. So simply imagine if you could channel gang energy into an artistic outlet.
In this case I strongly agree with what Nikos said about a public place. This has worked in so many cities to combat different angles of graffiti “problems”. I am working towards a proposal that will allow for such a creative safe haven within the city. In the end this location would help provide a place for summer festivals, outdoor art, and public interaction. The second you allow the public to interact with a street artist the reality is that people tend to really open up and gain an understanding for the art form. With that understanding and open mind comes a great mutual benefit to the general public. It by no means is a wholistic solution to all of society’s problems, but these thing are only parralleled with graffiti when a politician finds it meet their purpose. Enter Ian MacConnel. A guy who looks to gain a seat in public office simply by focusing on graffiti artists. Don’t get me worng he has made some valid efforts towards green emprovements in the community, but his true focus in very narrow minded.
In the end I can talk graffiti positive and negative effects till I’m blue in the face, but the end decision is left up to the viewer as to how they view it and or allow it to affect them.
hey columbusite! (for some reason I can’t quote you)…Weiland Park is included in the University Area Commission and University District and would benefit from this plan.
Vandalism is not art.
I think vacate retail spaces result in more crime, including the graffiti they invite. The building owners themselves make zero effort to clean up the exteriors. As an example, the old Open Book space looks like hell, has invited more graffiti and of course the bums that go with it.
How about a proposal to start holding property owners accountable. Especially if a space goes vacant for this long when they’re holding out for numbers they’ll never get. I suspect if you did you would see less graffiti and less crime that it supposedly inspires.
coreroc said “Seriously if you subscrib to that theory you may be more of a problem to society than a graffiti artist.”
I’ll keep that in mind when I am painting my fence, picking up trash in my yard and on my street, following up with code enforcement complaints, and calling the police to deal with the crackheads fighting by my house.
coreroc also said “If you focus on the graffiti you allow far worse crimes to occur by the gang. If you treat all based upon the worst apple in the bunch you will struggle to find sucess.”
I don’t think anyone is suggesting only focusing on the taggers, gang -related or not. It’s one aspect of improving public safety that can have tangible results and that can be implemented WITHOUT risk to community members.
I think there’s a big difference between graffiti art and graffiti vandalism. I don’t see anything wrong with well crafted artwork in public spaces, but if someone is just going around spending 2 seconds to spray their name on things, then I think that sort of thing isn’t really adding anything to a community artistically.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/04/29/brtag.html?sid=101
all I can say is “Good!” I hate vandals as much as litterers, if not more because their trash doesn’t just blow away.
I have some graffiti in my home and I can say with certainty that I’ve been misbehaving much more than usual.
It is definitely more of a problem with tagging, I think having more designated graffiti walls in Columbus may solve a lot of this. Certain Columbus graffiti ‘groups’ just run around like toddlers with a Crayola marker drawing all over everything and anything they can get their hands on.
Tagging is chicken scratch and has no aesthetic appeal. Trash cans, fine, just keep it off buildings, signs and houses.
Anyone seen the side of Ruby Tuesdays?
These “artists” have been ’tagging’ sides of homes, garages, garbage cans, vacant buildings, and even a few tree trunks on my street for years. It’s not cute, and this form of graffiti is NOT art. It pisses me off, not to mention costs money and hassle for my neighbors to remove paint from brick, which can be tricky and time consuming. In fact, I keep a bucket of paint that matches the whitewashed brick building across the street from me and have continuously painted over what is, in fact, annoying behavior by kids whose guaridans obviously don’t care that their little assholes are defacing other people’s property and call it art or turf tags, or whatever. (The last ‘tag” was a 5 x 10 masterpiece that read ”CONDO.”)
Signed,
Crotchety Old Man
Snarf – there is mass ignorance in many of your posts so I will simply disreguard this one as normal as we have beat that dead horse in other posts years ago.
JonMyers – I believe that there is some guideline that holds at least business owners responsible for the graffiti. I’m not sure how that would translate to the property owners. I also think this is why the local businesses mentioned in the article have raised a private reward. It however seperates the state and city from helping with their millions of dollars in equipment used to clean city surfaces. You will also find that railroad bridges become the property of the rail companies so that again would fall under another jurisdiction. so in the end graffiti is far harder to control than one orginazation can acomplish.
As Walker said and as simply put as possible there is a difference between graffiti art and tagging or vandalism. I know that the trend of the ignorant is assume that everything is the same and that myself who rents studio space to do my workon canvas is just as bad as the gang member claiming his neighborhood from the hard working families. It’s alright because ignorance is bliss. However if I said that because one restaraunt in Columbus serves bad food that i will never eat in Columbus again is the same as grouping all forms of graffiti into one basket.
If you think that the tags on your fence cause the crackheads in your neighborhood then yes you are amongst the ignorant. spade = spade
I won’t argue the fact that tagging is aestheticly pleasing in the community. However I don’t think that it is any worse than some of the advertising that people can pay to force on communities. I will also say that many clothing designs and current fonts used in modern design come from the aesthetics of street tagging. In fact the elevation of graphic arts has grown due to the level of talent shown in current graffiti art. From comic books to comercials people steal from graffiti aesthetics to achieve grabbing their audience. The ammount of money spent these days to remove graffiti is far shadowed by the ammount of money that it generates for the economy.
I also have a theory that IanInstinct is creaming his pants over this thread and will for a few days.
Welcome to the boards
Ian = Loss of Will = good dude.. lol