Graffiti Problem (San Antonio, Medina, Anton: rental, tenants, gated community)

[yosoyway]

Originally Posted by traveler guy

Yeah but no matter what you do they will keep coming. I hate tagging for giving graffiti/graffiti artist a bad name.
It is truly impossible to get rid of graffiti cause not only is it art it's a ways of communication, and to some a sort of culture that is global and spreading from the ghettos to the suburbs. Graffiti is like a bee it can multiply fast and come from nowhere, it can produce pretty flowers and produce ugly stings.

I prefer to compare tagging as herpes. It's a disease that if left unchecked will spread leaving it's hideous marks.

The only way to control it is to attack it agressively.

Bee can be good. They polinate, produce honey, help give us flowers, vegetables and fruits.

Unless they're killer bees. Entonces si. Aguas!!!

[tekka-maki]

Originally Posted by traveler guy

I think when people paint over the graffiti that is just plain stupid. I mean for one you just paid money and waste time painting over whats just gonna appear there the next week.
The second reason I think it's stupid is cause it actually makes it look even worst then before. Painting over the tagging is just going to be a waste of time and money. Last but not least If you do paint over the taggings at least paint with the original colors of the building so it doesn't look like a white block of paint messing up the original paint job.

What's the alternative though? Leave the graffiti? I for one send the HOA managment company an email each time I see it. They paint the whole box so you can't really tell, and occasionally have to scrub the graffiti off the brick fence in the front of the community (which reminds me). If they never painted over the graffiti in this community before, it'd look horrible and be bad for my home's value. It wasn't until I lived here in S.A. for a few months that I realized HOA is very important and a vital asset, lol... not just the graffiti cleanup but 'some' folks down here do not so pretty things with their properties and need to be kept in check.

I personally think we should spend the HOA dough for a wireless cam and catch the perp (I think they live here in this community!). When identified, we can flog them in the park area! Or at least throw rocks at them until they pass out... seriously, I'm all for capital punishment of taggers in this city!

[Corvette327]

Don't paint over the graffiti.....instead, take your own can of paint and write slurs next to theirs to embarrass them....such as "idiot" and "el stupido" and "***" or whatever you can think of and draw arrows to their graffiti name.
Leave that for a couple of weeks and they will stop doing it. Then paint over it.

[SilverCreek78250]

Originally Posted by tekka-maki

I personally think we should spend the HOA dough for a wireless cam and catch the perp (I think they live here in this community!). When identified, we can flog them in the park area! Or at least throw rocks at them until they pass out... seriously, I'm all for capital punishment of taggers in this city!

I just went and did a "patrol" of my neighborhood this morning and only had to paint over one new tag. Our area has been hit bad for the last several months and several of us have taken it upon ourselves to paint over it as soon as possible. It does seem to be working.

The down side is the fact that the painted over graffiti looks just as bad as the tagger's art. But, being the lesser of two evils, I'm happy to take away the ability of the tagger to show his work to his friends.

My HOA is buying the wireless cam system and we intend to catch the little jerks. I won't go as far as to publicly say what I'll do if I catch one red-handed, but hopefully, you won't see it on the 10 PM news.

[traveler guy]

Originally Posted by Corvette327

Don't paint over the graffiti.....instead, take your own can of paint and write slurs next to theirs to embarrass them....such as "idiot" and "el stupido" and "***" or whatever you can think of and draw arrows to their graffiti name.
Leave that for a couple of weeks and they will stop doing it. Then paint over it.

You don't want to do that cause you just get them mad. Also what if you paint over a gang tagging like that. It's ok to paint of it to cover it but if you make fun of the gang some stuff can get out of hand and trust me I've seen something like that before. back when I was little my neighbor beaten and killed for disrespecting the stupid punks there. Of course this won't always happen just depends on who your painting over, but I wouldn't risk it.

[traveler guy]

You know what place has been hit hard. The evens/Wurzbach area right by the indian shops and apartments. I actually like the graffiti there cause they are more like bombs and sometimes pieces. You do see the tagging which is the ugly part but that area is producing more artist then wannabe gangsters.

[traveler guy]

Originally Posted by yosoyway

I prefer to compare tagging as herpes. It's a disease that if left unchecked will spread leaving it's hideous marks.

The only way to control it is to attack it agressively.

Bee can be good. They polinate, produce honey, help give us flowers, vegetables and fruits.

Unless they're killer bees. Entonces si. Aguas!!!

Herpes would size up for tagging yes cause it is ugly and it won't go away.

but the bee is the graffiti art that produces the flowers and fruit. It gives life to a otherwise died wall just as bees give life to a otherwise ugly tree fertilizing
the flowers.

[tekka-maki]

Originally Posted by traveler guy

Herpes would size up for tagging yes cause it is ugly and it won't go away.

but the bee is the graffiti art that produces the flowers and fruit. It gives life to a otherwise died wall just as bees give life to a otherwise ugly tree fertilizing
the flowers.

Graffiti art? Where's that at? All I've seen are initials and the like with poor penmanship to boot. Now if the crap that these loser taggers looked like this 3d Graffiti Art, then I'd be a happy camper. But then I don't think that an artist would travel, coveted by night and paint on private property.

[Montirob]

Originally Posted by traveler guy

I think when people paint over the graffiti that is just plain stupid. I mean for one you just paid money and waste time painting over whats just gonna appear there the next week.
The second reason I think it's stupid is cause it actually makes it look even worst then before. Painting over the tagging is just going to be a waste of time and money. Last but not least If you do paint over the taggings at least paint with the original colors of the building so it doesn't look like a white block of paint messing up the original paint job.

I disagree. The neighborhood I live in has its share of tagging (in the alleys on the backs of garages). We have found that if it is painted over rapidly and repeatedly, the tagging stops. If it is left alone, the wall has more tagging. An example: Jefferson High is in our neighborhood. When it is tagged and cleaned up immediately, no tagging appears for a very long time. If it is left alone for a week or so (a personal gripe of ours with SAISD), multiple taggings appear around it within days.

I agree that painting over it sometimes looks bad, but I think that leaving the tagging alone is not an option. Besides, it wasn't the people painting over it that started the problem.

You'll notice I did not call it "graffiti" which I consider different than tagging. If we had someone like Banksy (and I have seen some evidence), I think most people would agree that it could be considered "art." Yes, graffiti can enliven "dead" walls, but we also have to admit that the owners of the dead walls should have the last say - even though the owners may be causing more of an eyesore (ex: Walmarts, especially the ones they abandoned to build one just down the road). If you want to consider graffitti as an act of civil disobedience, then I'm fine with that opinion, as long as it is understood that consequences may follow.

[gwrober]

Bansky is an artist - he just uses spray paint and public walls as a medium. I don't completely agree with his methods, but his messages are true messages, not gang scribbling and turf war baloney.