What do you think about graffiti in the city? (crime, felony)

[GDK94]

@ BarbaraMN. yea i see what your talking about. i thought you were saying all graffiti was gang related.

[stars&bars]

Three things come to my mind when I see graffiti, some kid with too much idle time on his hands, directions where to purchase a particular narcotic or just an animal marking his/her territory!

[ThisIsAMinneapolitan]

Originally Posted by stars&bars

Three things come to my mind when I see graffiti, some kid with too much idle time on his hands, directions where to purchase a particular narcotic or just an animal marking his/her territory!

Sometimes, when done on the right surface, graffiti seems to give the area a human touch. It means people go there, its not just place for cars to drive past. Its something that distinguishes us from the boring burbs. Thats just me, and it has to be in the right context of course. To be honest, I don't really care if ink is applied to the back of a stop sign.

[tijlover]

Here in Las Vegas we spend $30 million cleaning up graffitti every year. We have a hotline number you can call, and someone will come out the next day or the next to paint it over. It may not match the color, but it's better than leaving it standing.

Graffitti is something I ponder on my travels. Why there's so much in one country and so little in another. Have traveled all over Latin America. In Mexico, there's graffitti everywhere!!! South, into Central America, I hardly notice it. Into South America, the big surprise was Chile, they seem to compete with Mexico.

[Slig]

Mexico's graffiti in the towns I was in at least quadrupled Minneapolis. I was teaching English to 8th graders and I had to take away a graffiti magazine from one of the students during class one day. These kids were so obsessed with graffiti they were reading magazines about it! I don't think it's nearly as popular here, but it's a major problem nonetheless.

[tijlover]

In our schools here we have a program where you can turn someone in for doing graffitti.

I first thought it was the Mexicans who were doing most of the graffitti around Las Vegas (unfairly judged from my visits to Mexico), and when reading about/seeing those that were apprehended, there were a number of white & black offenders as well. These activities are not confined to one race of people.

When someone IS apprehended here, they are punished by having to spend X amount of time cleaning up graffitti around the city.

[JPMN]

Hi. I am doing a research project on Graffiti art in the Minneapolis area. If anyone knows of some good places to check out could you please reply and give me some locations. I have seen the public wall on the greenway in minneapolis but am looking for more. Also, when I say graffiti art I am referring to artistic tagging and or murals.

[xz2y]

I think the graffiti is gross and very destructive of property. No excuses. It's illegal and should be prosecuted. I've seen a lot of it in Mpls, unfortunately, and the longer it's allowed to stand and not be cleaned off, the worse it will get. It's a ghetto thing and has no place in a civilized society.

[Double]

Graffiti is an entire underground scene made up of "writers", mostly middle and high school kids, suburban and urban. It revolves around the hip-hop scene. Minneapolis and St. Paul are 3rd generation graffiti cities, everyone here is copying what was done elsewhere in 1st and 2nd generation cities like New York and Chicago.

Most of them are just "taggers", writing their chosen names in 1 color anywhere and everywhere with a marker or spraycan. The point of this is to get known among the local writers and hopefully build up an impressive reputation for whatever reason.

"Throw-ups" are the next step up. 2-color, fat letters with an outline. These take more time to paint and take up more space than tags, so they get more respect.

"Pieces" or murals are large, full color pieces of art. You will rarely see these done illegally around here since they take hours to complete. Most of the time they are on public legal walls or commissioned by local businesses. You can also spot these on freight trains from other parts of the country.

Now that cities have had decades to perfect methods of battling graffiti, it tends to be less of a problem, but there is always a new wave of youth coming on board who pick it up, get involved in the scene for a few years and either grow out of it or get in trouble and stop.

Nowadays it is just another abstract art form around the city, like those weird sculptures you see in parks or freaky paintings you see in lobbies. Some people like it, some don't, but it definitely has its niche (just as long as that niche isn't my garage door).

[northsider14]

I kinda like graffitti if its in the right place it looks pretty nice