Notes fm SF Anti-Graffiti Super Huddle

Submitted by admin on
Anti-Graffiti Super Huddle
April 23, 2009
Chinatown, SF, CA

From Mohammed Nuru, Chair, SF Graffiti Advisory Board
(also called "Graffiti Czar" by David Chiu, Ed Reiskin, and Bevan Dufty)

  • "groups of taggers taking over SF"
  • "what is appropriate punishment for property defacement, vandalism?"
  • we "will do anything to protect assets of SF"
  • "graffiti hurts all of us"
  • "$22 million a year for graffiti eradication (dollars spent constantly growing)"
  • "join hands to defeat vandalism"

From David Chiu, President, SF Board of Supervisors

  • "graffiti is an incredible issue"
  • "Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore"
  • uses disproved "broken windows" theory
  • "takes a village to deal with the problem" of graffiti
  • working on a new law to buff vacant buildings that the Board will most likely pass
  • 10,000 calls to 311 (SF info center) about graffiti

From Ed Reiskin, Director of SF Public Works

  • "we need creativity to attack problem" of graffiti
  • also mentions discounted "broken windows" theory
  • Positive Changes
    • Board's Blight Ordinance
    • Movement on State level to get busted taggers to do community service
    • Better public reporting (# of arrests doubled in past year)
    • One person at SFPD takes care of graffiti busts, streamlining process
    • City contractors are abating graffiti in shopping corridor

Bevan Dufty, Member, SF Board of Supervisors

  • "slackers in the vanguard of tagging"
  • graffiti propagates "violence and misogyny"
  • undermines SF values
  • $1.4 million spent in street signs with protective coatings
  • "creativity is one thing - tagging is another"
  • "appealed to have a graffiti judge" that sees all trial cases

Notes from Q&A round

  • SF has database of graffiti to pin multiple pieces to one arrested tagger
  • Shepard Fairey mentioned and panel says that he has permission to do art so not a vandal
  • "green paint fights vandalism"
  • 89 arrests in SF in 2009 (some were full crews)
  • SFPD looking into device to put on walls that detect spray and contact. Device will then radio SFPD directly!

Also
  • about 400 attending
  • some diversity in race and sex
  • many are City employees still on the clock
  • DVD of movie handed out, along with District stats on major graffiti corridors, arrests, and even types of graffiti (spray, acid, marker... no stencil, sticker, or paste up)
  • Didn't stay for second round, but SF Arts Commission did present their Street SmART program, which one attending graffiti artist said was the only part of the "huddle" that wasn't a "witch hunt"
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