Some taggers pulled off an extraordinary feat -- they enveloped several blocks' worth of the bank of the Los Angeles River with their tag. Take a look at the photograph in the Fish Wrapper article -- I had to look twice before I realized just how huge that graffiti was.
The City of Angels is going after the tagging crew for the $3.7 million bill that the Army Corps of Engineers will charge for removing the tag in an environmentally-friendly way. Obviously they won't have even a tiny fraction of the money. And the crew is being prosecuted for Federal crimes -- seems they did big ol' tags like this in San Francisco and (here's where the Feds come in) Las Vegas, too. Meanwhile, the city is goint to start removing the graffiti.
I've got to think that there is a better solution to this situation. Obviously, the tag can't be allowed to remain in place; that only incentivizes future taggers. But on the other hand, I don't see much point in spending nearly four million dollars to produce... tan concrete. So here's my question -- why not spend a quarter of that money to commission a gigantic mural over the tag? Los Angeles is far from devoid of artists up to the task.
Good idea. But first, have the taggers have to paint over their own work.
ReplyDeleteWith paint brushes.
Very, very small paint brushes.
In the summer.
Vindictive? Me?