Why no Graffiti on the light rail? (Corcoran, Franklin: real estate, neighborhoods)

[MetropolitaJazzMan]

Why do you think the Light Rail has stayed Graffiti or "Bombing" free?

[Jeanie Hoholik]

Originally Posted by MetropolitaJazzMan

Why do you think the Light Rail has stayed Graffiti or "Bombing" free?

Hmmm...maybe because it's not "edgy" enough. Ever see Graffiti on a trolley?

[Minnehahapolitan]

The light rail doesn't go through any neighborhood shady enough to have people who would graffiti a train. Even buses in bad areas don't have that much, it is mostly on the shelters. Graffiting a moving object is contrary to the point of actual graffiti.

[golfgal]

Maybe I am imagining this but I thought when they came out with the cars that the coating didn't hold paint or something along that line. Also, are the cars ever just parked/stopped anywhere that someone could mark them up?

[Slig]

Also, the light rail cars are all painted from top to bottom with colorful advertisements, making it difficult for grafiti to show over it and essentially pointless. People tend to tag buildings and fences that are unpainted or painted one color. The Corcoran neighborhood had a local artist take a group of volunteers and painted murals all over the Midtown/Lake Street stop so it is pretty well protected from grafiti.

[Minnehahapolitan]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Maybe I am imagining this but I thought when they came out with the cars that the coating didn't hold paint or something along that line. Also, are the cars ever just parked/stopped anywhere that someone could mark them up?

If the cars are ever stopped, they are in the Franklin Avenue garage.

[BORGUSX]

I heard that the light rail was completed in 2007 or 2008? Can anyone give me more information about this light rail,so I can go on it and pick up some chicks there,lol!

[insert_name_here_00]

sorry but you guys are speaking about things you dont understand.

the ONLY reason people dont paint the light rail - consistently - is because it never stops anywhere outside its garage for more than 2 minutes.

believe me, paint would hold up beautifully on those things - over a giant beer advertisement or not.

the train goes downtown. along hiawatha. across franklin. cedar. 35th. theres graffiti all over the place.

but what makes you think only people in 'shady neighborhoods' would write graffiti? uptown has some of the highest real estate prices in the city... and the most graffiti.

and how is painting a moving object contrary to the "point of actual graffiti?" probably the main purpose of graffiti is to get notice. there are few better ways to be seen than to travel, all day, from the mall, to the airport, along a highway, and then downtown and back again.

believe me, if they ever start stopping trains for more than two minutes or expand their inventory enough to merit large new york subway style lay ups, people will find ways to get inside and paint them.

[sicarim]

Right - where would they tag it? They'd have to sneak into the storage garage.

[Minnehahapolitan]

Admittedly, I don't understand graffiti well enough to know on which surfaces it will better look. I also have no doubt that an idle train would attract graffiti.
Only people in shady neighborhoods would graffiti a train. An IMPEACH BUSH NOW stencil just doesn't look as good there as it does on a light post or utility box in Uptown. IMPEACH BUSH NOW stencils have never passed as graffiti, in my opinion. Gang graffiti tends to delineate blocks -- putting that same graffiti on a moving object would be counterproductive. That is all I was trying to say.