The difference between graffiti and art is permission. It's and uphill battle trying to impress this upon kids, especially when some really popular video games involve "tagging".(I know, there goes the old guy blaming video games, maybe rock n' roll has a hand in it too) The interesting thing about graffiti is that it is not just an urban crime, I've seen it in Williamsville and Clarence as well.

Did anyone catch this in the news today:

" Commercial Pipe & Supply Corp. at 1920 Elmwood Ave. was vandalized sometime between noon Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.... Damage in that incident was estimated at about $4,000.

Police said the business was damaged again sometime between 5 p.m. June 13 and 8 a.m. June 15 when someone spray-painted graffiti on several areas of the building. That graffiti caused about $55,000 in damages, police reported."

http://www.buffalonews.com/258/story/106972.html

This business owner is out almost $60,000 dollars, I find that to be complete bullsh*t. No one should ever have to go through that! I don't buy the 'but he's insured' excuse, because it is still going to cost him in the end. I don't know about this business owner, but if I had to go through this on 2 occasions in 2 weeks, I would probably look to either protect my business or move it to a safer location.

Digginit - The quick answer to time for SPADE, METH, and ATAK, is "NOT ENOUGH!"

These maggots are absolutely worthless as citizens and human beings, they give art a bad name. I don't care what excuses these little p@#$% use to explain themselves, they are not artists, they are not revolutionaries. They are insecure and frustrated little pussbags who can't make a name for themselves any other way.

I would love to remove the tags along the Kensington and downtown, especially those seen by visitors. It sickens me to see think that ultimately we, the citizens, will have to pay for the removal of this vandalism.

And your point being?

SIlly post.

Some of our finer citizens...

Eric P. Osborne, 23 of LIMA (Kirkwood), NY was sentenced to 5 years probation, paid a $360.00 fine and supposedly spent 40 hours removing graffiti. He was a landscaper and college student in Rochester when he was caught spray painting "METH" around our city. He would like to "move on and put this whole thing behind him", fair enough except that there are over 100 buildings "left behind" with his tag.

Want to see how remorseful he is? Here is a quote that he posted to "Lounge 37" as nevergonnacatch_me... yea....not fun man...not fun. i got off with a 90day sentence, that I am not done serving. 5 years of felony probation, and community service and about a grand in fines. Bullshit for real.......Buffalo is a fucking joke....but for a 4 year run...90days...eh...hahaha i still have more then a throw or tag for each day of that ammount of time running in that city.Fuck it GOONS/GQ for life.But yea, def got fucked hard. The city of buffalo was trying to set a harsh example because of the ammount of graffiti that is in the city. Bigger named writters are just ruthless, and I fucking love it. BUMPS TO ATAK nsf/bf, HERT/bf, LIONS/nsf/bf, REK GOONS/gq,TRON GOONS/gq and the rest of my GOONS boys...keep shit real.

Christopher A. Fargo, 24 formerly of Dewitt St, Buffalo received probation for tagging "Zen" on the Ferguson Electric building. His tags are seen on some of the highest profile and most visible buildings downtown.

Derek Thurlow, 31, tagged "Merk" all over the city. He was fined $1,250 and 150 hours community service when he was finally caught in 200.

Fernando Godinez,27, was fined $1,250 and 150 hours community service for painting "Lions". To his credit, he assisted with the colorful children's mural on the side of the Gloria J. Parks Center. Such a nice kid from Amherst.

Mark A. Buffington, 33, admitted defacing the Gates Circle fountain. Where is he now?

I had no idea that these guys were so old, I expected 16 - 19 year old high-school students.

I see tags up and down Hertel, Delaware and Elmwood. Oh that's right... I never see a tag on the Police station on Delaware and Tioga (AKA Tim Horton's).... ATAK, HERT and a new one DDx have cost business owners and tax payers thousands - Ridiculous Also.. How come we never see tags in the suburbs?????

Isn't there an actual Police Station on Hertel and Elmwood?

This is a terrible article.... graffiti is an eyesore and an expensive problem when applied to businesses and residences. Why would you post it as a positive or as some sort of "civil war"? Maybe suggestions to prevent it would be a better use of your literative skill, like the idea of a designated space for taggers. Or support for homeowners and businesses to remove it, like volunteer organizations that would go around to businesses and help remove it. It is an invasion of privacy.

My house, along with almost every house on Gill Alley was recently vandalized. And there is nothing artistic about it. It's black marker scribble. Makes me almost second guess my choice to buy a house in the city.

Prosecute vandals. Graffiti on vacant buildings and properties CAN be beautiful sometimes, but most often it is amature and ugly, many times gang related.

Keep reporting it to the police (take pictures) and clean up the graffiti on your property when it occurrs.

What about a web site where victims could post pics of the graffiti and when/where it occurred? Not as an art project, but as evidence against the taggers...

I don't really get this article. It seems like a summary of the posts from a while back when this all came up during the one sentencing.

Destruction of property is destruction of property, regardless of someone's opinions on its asthetics. Any violators should be hit with full remedation costs or material costs and labor on first offense. Second offense: the former plus jail time.

HelenGood, search BRO for Harvey Garrett. You'll find all you need to know about previous posts about graffiti.

So you don't agree with jail? Thats your opinion then. I guess I don't always agree that jail is the best reform method for people - it's more of a deterrent in my mind. But it's the law.

Fines and community service should be enough. Make them wear orange and work on a chain gang removing graffiti.

Fine and commmunity service would be much more acceptable than jail time, matter of fact just garnish their wages too; theres got to be a way make that work. You want to teach these little fuck ups a lesson, make em pay for the next 10-15 years. Business/homeowner wins and so does the tax payer.

aka mouse... its funny i said the same thing, even when professionally done I don't think it would cost half as much to paint the entire Commercial supply pipe building.

About a year/year and a half ago I was working in a five story hotel where the entire building was painted for $25,000 by a professional company.. and the news says "$60k" to remove the graffitti... thats funny

Graffiti is self expression, I'm not sure what all you, eh maybe 20-35 year old adults do for self expression but not everyone be brought up sucking mommys nipple untill their your age. There is history and stories behind graffiti, take a look at it, venture into it before you just bash it. I highly doubt half of these estimates for property damage are correct seeing as most of the time a simple power wash or buff can remove graffiti. spc.

simcoe, you see to be somewhat closeminded about graffiti and tagging.

I'm not a graffiti artist but it is very easy to recognize that many valuable concepts have emerged out of informal and sometimes socially unacceptable behavior. It doesn't matter what simcoe thinks is not cool. Future innovations will come out of unexpected places. I'd rather be one the people that recognized the potential(or coolness) where others saw nothing. We should be worried if we are living in a city without this kind of behavior.

simcoe,

I'm no expert on graffiti and I don't need to educate you about your own culture. I see an influence of graffiti most cleary in graphic design, contemporary art and marketing. I also see that graffiti has changed the way our culture addresses public spaces. Do some research.

First off. Most people write on piece of shit abandoned buildings, not like the middle of deleware park or something like that. and also, would it be okay if i just printed off a thousand sheets of paper and went and posted them around the city with my graffiti tag on it? i mean, that way i could be littering too, but it would only be considered as advertising or propoganda, SIMCOE, your simply a close minded [deleted] get a life. id be interested in how old you are too if you care to elaborate.

urbanesque, go eat a dick. you have no understanding of what graffiti is about. and it really should not be illegal, its advertisement, what about these billboards people dont give two shits about drivin past on the highway? and besides who gives a shit about all of the old abandoned buildings? noone will ever be able to stop graffiti, it might get buffed, but it'll show up again trust me. if it were up to me, elmwood would be littered, that stuck up yuppy ass road needs a little bit of "street". besides, why would you stop bf? they're too good at what they do, they are fearless and that type of recklessness brings about hope to new upcoming graffiti artists. before you know it, new generations of artists are going to come in to buffalo and do work and take over all the atak, merk, sler, lions, wore, and herts. if you actually tried to come up with a design for a tag name and drew it out and tried to make something atak worthy, then come and try and talk. people like urbanesque and simcoe are just straight up ignorant pieces of shit that bear no impact on the ideas and opinions of true street artists.