Graffiti As Vandalism
Graffiti on Bowery Graff Building.
This part is to show how graffiti is not considered as art but as vandalism. It is paramount to note that graffiti is vandalism because of the arenas that the taggers choose to do their work. Taggers have been known to take on any available building and wall without authorization from owners and government (D’Amico & Block 2007). It is illegal and is considered as trespass to invade in a person’s property without their permission. Taggers have been known to draw their graffiti in any available wall and putting various drawings and paints on a prominent building. It lowers the dignity of someone’s property if unwanted graffiti is drawn on its walls. Taggers have exploited prominent businesses. As a result of their graffiti the business have faced losses and bad publicity (Halsey & Pederick 2010).
Illegal graffiti on high street.
Graffiti being associated with gangs have lowered both the dignity and value of prominent property with graffiti on them. Although not all graffiti symbolises gang, many people have the misconception about them and they do not want to go near graffiti because they associate them with street gangs. Due to these graffiti a property’s value have depreciated because of the concern of being associated with graffiti. Although these graffiti are drawn without the owner’s authority, it is hard to explain that fact to an investor. It pose effects on property and is known to decrease the value of property. Graffiti is also associated with low class or ghetto like lifestyles that diminishes a property. It creates the notion of bad neighbourhood that can be critical in property valuation (Halsey 2006).
Because of graffiti being associated with street gangs it is hard for a business person to conduct their businesses. The association of graffiti with gangs have made it hard for business to prosper because majority of customers are likely to view the business as one associated with the gangs. A grocery that has graffiti drawn to it has less advantage than a clean grocery because the one with graffiti shows association with a gang although it may be not right (Chmielewska 2007). The kind of graffiti that is portrayed in a business portrays the kind of services that are found inside the business. Take an example of a grocery with explicit graffiti, all it will mean is that the owner does not value social values and thus will not attract respectable people. Some graffiti are also scary to customers and thus instead of attracting them to the shop they tend to send them away (Eldridge 2013).
Street cleaners washing off graffiti.
The other reason that makes graffiti to be seen as an illegal entity is the kind of tools that are used; the spray paint has negative impact on the environment. Most of the graffiti spray paint are very stagnant and stubborn and cannot be easily removed from walls or buildings thus causing much harm to the environment (Light et al. 2012). These tools are harmful to the colours that are initially used in the walls or building. They ruin the beauty of a wall and make the appearance not to be appealing. The cost of cleaning up the graffiti has been high and has a high impact on the government’s budget. Businesses also incur a lot of cost due to graffiti art because majority of the graffiti artists are known to shoplift their tools (spray paint and markers). Graffiti has caused much discomfort in transportation industry because of the tags that have been done on trains and public means vehicles (Davis 2008).
Graffiti are done when one least expects and thus they can get a property owner off guard when he least expects to have an investor visiting is when the graffiti is drawn to his disadvantage. Graffiti taggers have no respect to people’s property and thus the make the fine art to be vandalism. The kind of message that is portrayed in the graffiti may have negative impact on the kind of building that it has been drawn on and it may bring misconception. It is intimidating to the property owners who for example work for the government and have graffiti on their buildings that are against the government they are serving. It may seem as total hypocrisy and may go to the extent of a person’s government position being terminated and one being charged with treason (Megler et al. 2014).
Graffiti artists painting on trains.
It is imperative to note that certain messages in graffiti design are full of hypocrisy and intimidating. Not all graffiti is seen to portray messages that are uplifting in a community instead some are full of filth and incitement. Activists are not always right but sometime they have their hidden agenda about their political ambitions and thus use the graffiti as an underground means of tarnishing the authority of the government. Due to graffiti receiving public audience, it has come to be advantageous for political activist who have been deemed to cause trouble for governments (Iveson 2010).