{"id":2866,"date":"2009-05-14T11:17:55","date_gmt":"2009-05-14T18:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lee.org\/blog\/?p=2866"},"modified":"2009-05-14T11:17:55","modified_gmt":"2009-05-14T18:17:55","slug":"san-francisco-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/2009\/05\/14\/san-francisco-graffiti\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Graffiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laughing Squid recently had an article highlighting San Francisco Street Art & Graffiti Photographer Steve Rotman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are some large excerpts and then my comment:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Plug1<\/strong>: San Francisco City officials<\/a> claim graffiti complaints are way up this year<\/a>. They claim The City is overwhelmed with graffiti removal requests from private citizens and business owners. Is there really more graffiti now than there was five years ago?<\/p>\n

Steve<\/strong>: No, not even close! In fact, San Francisco\u2019s never been more graffiti-free<\/em>, thanks to several years of aggressive buffing. Just a few years ago<\/a>, graffiti was ubiquitous: there were big colorful rooftop pieces<\/a> in almost every neighborhood, parking lots were layered with years of history, business roll-down gates featured a steady rotation of throw-ups, there were doors crushed with tags citywide, and several Muni tunnels were painted end to end. Almost none of that exists anymore. The amount of graffiti today is exponentially less. It raises an obvious question: what\u2019s all the fuss about?<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Plug1<\/strong>: City officials say all we need to know about graffiti is that it\u2019s illegal and it\u2019s vandalism<\/a>. What do you think?<\/p>\n

Steve<\/strong>: That\u2019s simplistic. Graffiti is obviously much more than criminal. It\u2019s a worldwide renegade art culture<\/em> that\u2019s been around for decades. Graffiti is routinely exhibited in museums and art galleries all over the world. Bookstores feature shelves full of graffiti and street art collections. Graffiti festivals are commonplace. Graffiti-inspired designs infuse popular culture. Why? Because people enjoy it!<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Plug1<\/strong>: What are some good locations to get a taste of the urban art you\u2019ve been documenting<\/a> in San Francisco?<\/p>\n

Steve<\/strong>: Just for starters, I\u2019d suggest Clarion Alley<\/a> between Valencia and Mission streets. Also in the Mission, Lilac Alley<\/a> between 24th<\/sup> and 26th<\/sup> streets. In the Soma district, Bluxome Alley<\/a> at roughly 430 Townsend street. And in the Upper Haight, check out the Amoeba Records<\/a> parking lot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My comment:<\/p>\n

Marking another person\u2019s property without their permission is anti-social, ugly, and a crime.<\/p>\n

Marking another person\u2019s property with<\/strong> their permission has the ability to be art. Every example you cited, Clarion Alley et all all had permission.<\/p>\n

The amount of graffiti today is exponentially less. It raises an obvious question: what\u2019s all the fuss about <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ask that question to the hundreds of people in San Francisco that had to clean up these \u201cartists\u201d shit in the past week, replacing $1,000 windows, spending hours scrubbing with toxic chemicals and renting steamers and blasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laughing Squid recently had an article highlighting San Francisco Street Art & Graffiti Photographer Steve Rotman. Here are some large excerpts and then my comment:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}