Graffiti on NH's highways: Disgrace! (tax, live, law)

[GotBackHome]

perhaps when one decides they don't like graffiti art, it should be encouraged to children - what do you think all that sidewalk chalk is?! sure, it's chalk, it washes off. and aside from permanence it's different how? yet we like and encourage it. why wouldn't they grow up thinking it's a bad thing to 'decorate' anywhere they please?

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by unit731

Live Free or Die !

Many metro areas in other states restrict the sale of spray paint. Adults only. All spray paiint behind glass and locked.

Pass a state law to restrict the sale of spray paint. Simple enough. But:

NH is the Live Free or Die state. NH folks do not like big government dictating behavior. Oh, the horror of big government passing a law restricting the sale of spray paint.

Spray paint is highly restricted here in Las Vegas, but the tagging continues unabated. Las Vegas spends $30 million a year having it removed, and, surprisingly, they've found it's not just kids that are doing it, adults as well.

In this city, there's miles and miles of "canvasses"/cinder block walls to paint on. If you wake up some morning and find one of your walls tagged, you call the hotline, and they'll come out shortly to paint over it with whatever paint is available, matching the current color or not.

If you drive around the city now you'll see where a section of a wall was tagged, covered up with paint that didn't match, and, in many instances, it looks worse than the original grafitti! Across from my house, someone tagged a tan concrete wall, the grafitti squad came by and sloppily painted over it with white paint! Ugh! And I have to stare at that everyday!!!

The grafitti artists, frustrated by their "art work" being destroyed, I increasingly see them now tagging the sidewalks.

Some of it is, unquestioningly, true art work, and I believe the true art should remain as is!

[GregW]

There has to be a way of "tagging" the "artists" and forcing them to remove their "decorations". This is a situation where the punishment should fit the crime.

[avlis13013]

Originally Posted by WannaComeHome

why wouldn't they grow up thinking it's a bad thing to 'decorate' anywhere they please?

Uhhh...because we adults teach them right from wrong?? Are you suggesting because my kid "tags" my driveway with a chalk flower and smiley face she'll later paint gang signs on the back of street signs? What about all those crayons and pencils and paper? Aren't those just small versions of sidewalk chalk?

[GotBackHome]

crayons, pencils and paper are private, personally owned situations. They are not communal property in the neighborhood. as to adults teaching them right from wrong, so you're saying the parents of taggers never told their kids this? I be they did. didn't matter. does sidewalk chalk automatically lead to tagging? not necessarily, but frankly I see it as the same thing. I don't really care if it's flowers or smiley faces - if it was on the back of a stop sign or a wall and still flowers and smiley faces would that make a difference? no, it's still graffiti. why is 'decorating' one public place ok but another not? is it less graffiti because you like the subject matter (peace signs or flowers) rather than gang signs? Are gang signs the ONLY grafitti?

[buck naked]

haven't seen much graffiti anywhere - a few blurbs will show up on bridge abutments on the highways, but are always scrubbed or painted over within weeks.

moveon.org or norml.org seem to be the graffiti of choice.....

[tijlover]

The visible will always upset the human race more so than anything invisible, and those that are doing this are keenly aware of what their actions will produce: anger, outrage, a protest vote against the system!

Some invisible creature, who has been unemployed for a couple years, or a homeless person, or an invisible prisoner who a motorist can't see driving past a NH prison on one's drive, won't show up on someone's radar screen.

But put some grafitti on a sign, somewhere, and the eyes spot it immediately!

Ban spray paint, and the taggers may turn to squirt guns filled with paint (can buy it at garage sales, thrift stores) and with some of these powerful squirt guns, which can squirt up to 50 feet away, they could make a real mess of a billboard or anything else!

[bostonguy1960]

[quote=tijlover;24851084]Spray paint is highly restricted here in Las Vegas, but the tagging continues unabated. Las Vegas spends $30 million a year having it removed, and, surprisingly, they've found it's not just kids that are doing it, adults as well.

That's sad to hear about Las Vegas. I guess the influence of nearby L.A., which I hear is a graffiti jungle, doesn't help. My only visit to L.A. in '88 appalled me with all the graffiti way back then; of course it's much worse now and will be years from now.

San Francisco and environs had lots of gang-style graffiti on my last visit over 10 years ago. Providence, RI, and environs = disgusting and trashy,

$30 million a year is astounding, but Boston and other cities pay a lot, as does the MBTA transit to clean only some of it. One can't reasonably or safely reach all of it.

How many people would actually say to let the graffiti remain, on all public and private surfaces, if it could save just one teacher's or policeman's job, build a library or playground...?

I can see their view but I don't wish to live in such an ugly environment...

[yinduffy]

I commute every day between Nashua and the industrial area around Manchester airport. The only grafiiti I see is on a RR bridge over the Everett Hwy and I guess that is because it is privately owned by the railroad. The grafitti is very old and never painted over. On highway abutments you can see grey paint patches where anything is covered up and I don't see much at all on the long sound walls along parts of the highway.
If asked, I would say that Grafitti is not really a quality of life problem like it is in other parts of the country.

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by WannaComeHome

perhaps when one decides they don't like graffiti art, it should be encouraged to children - what do you think all that sidewalk chalk is?! sure, it's chalk, it washes off. and aside from permanence it's different how? yet we like and encourage it. why wouldn't they grow up thinking it's a bad thing to 'decorate' anywhere they please?

This reminds me of when a friend once suggested that telling your kids about Santa Claus is teaching them to lie.

I don't buy it. I think you are over thinking this one by a good stretch. Somehow I don't think the kids drawing on their driveways in Mayberry are going to be tagging the neighborhood because of it. If only the problem was that simple to solve. Nor are they going to be out painting "art" under bridges. I doubt there is any relationship.