Not that we’re making light of the problem of graffiti in urban areas. It is, technically, the crime of vandalism to spray-paint images, tags, murals, witticisms, caricatures — what have you — on public spaces and privately owned surfaces, no matter the artistic value.
The handwriting, so to speak, is on the wall. We recall a time in the 1970s and ’80s when graffiti was a huge problem in New York City — or was it a Golden Age? — particularly on the subway cars, which got bombed every night in the yards by aspiring street artists. The NYC solution was to paint over every subway car every night — at least, until they commissioned new subway cars made of a material that would not hold spray paint.
The city’s solution is to regulate the spray-paint trade in a proposed ordinance that would make it illegal to sell it to anyone under 18 years of age without a parent present, and for anyone under 18 to have spray paint on their possession on public property or near bridges.
Which, we guess, is one way to go: When spray paint is outlawed, only outlaws will have spray paint.
However, we think it is important to acknowledge that there are many types of graffiti, with varying degrees of social benefit or detriment. Not all graffiti is vulgarities splayed across brick walls. Street gangs use graffiti to communicate threats or mark territory — which can sometimes be valuable information if you’re a lone Crip walking around an unfamiliar neighborhood. And some graffiti artists are just that: artists, who perhaps have made poor venue choices.
Let’s remember that Winston-Salem is the City of the Arts, and as such it has a duty to nurture its up-and-coming creative types — and, perhaps, to harness burgeoning talent. While much of what the city terms “graffiti” is antisocial dreck, we have seen with our own eyes spray-painted images with artistic merit in downtown Winston-Salem.
And we posit that perhaps the problem is not just that there is too much spray paint out on the street, but that there are not enough artistic outlets for the city’s youth — particularly those demographically predisposed to make graffiti.
Something else to remember: Graffiti is a phenomenon as old as civilization itself. Evidence of it has been discovered in ancient Greece and Rome — it’s always been a medium for commoners to speak truth to power, and it’s where the expression “handwriting on the wall” came from. Graffiti itself can never be wiped out, but maybe it can be channeled into something more productive.
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