Matt, that sounds almost as nutty as building some sort of "skate-park" to keep those skater punks off my decorative slate retaining wall and this is 1983.

I saw a kid tagging last night at like 4am, really boring non-art stuff ("TRW", I think was the tag?) and I started to call the cops on him. But then he finished his tag and walked back up towards the street. I pretty much like every single person I meet, so after he said hi, I decided I liked him and hung up the phone, talked for to him for a minute, and wandered off, never mentioning to him that if it hadn't taken me so long to find the police non-emergency number, he probably would've been arrested.

A few years ago the ADK crew scratched up my windows something awful. As the Portland Police Officer was taking the report, I recounted the tale of how I once caught someone breaking into my Subaru Justy back in Eugene, and how--after hitting the burglar over the head with a leaf-blower--I had to spend the night in jail while the burglar went free. The officer and I shared a laugh and I told him that I'd love to catch a tagger in the act. Three days later I received an envelope from Southeast Precinct. It contained a "junior deputy" badge/sticker with an attached note that said "Good job in Eugene!"
So I guess what I'm saying, No One In Particular, is that the non-emergency number for the police is 823-3333.

I'm ... distracted ... by the lingerie ad...

Oh, yeah. What about that electrical company's warehouse that burned down and fenced off? Maybe bits of it can be 'donated' to public art?

Call the PDC.

the art is for the people.
sure some graf artists get popular and have gallery shows, but most like being anonymous and putting up their message for EVERYONE to see. That said, it's too bad art is subjective, because most tags I see totally suck bowls of dick through curvy straws.

I'd like to see, rather than the _inside_ of a warehouse turned into a 'graffitti safe-space' - we designate a certain set of public monuments, poured in cement and MADE as random cement landmarks, for the accrual of public art.

Currently, a 'legit' group of people in Seattle can lobby for an underpass, etc, for community murals. And murals that get 'tagged' get repainted or even removed.

This led to a large controversy when the mural done by African American students under the bridge near University of Washington looked too much like graffitti. Was this appropriate art? The city erupted!

I'd like to see a certain number of corners, bridges, freeway pillars - designated for paint.

Wouldn't that lead to paint/public art/tagging all over.

Why yes, yes it would...

;-b

Taggers are idiots and should be publicly spanked by our public arts officials for trying to confuse people and cowering behind the first amendment. 99.9% are vandals.

Don't encourage confusion and insult the arts by using the oxymoronic term "graffiti artists." Do encourage public humiliation as a effective and efficient form of punishment.

That being said, considering your theoretical art hut, two problems: 1. liability for acetone inhalation; 2. what happens when something beautiful and worth keeping and considering emerges? Do you break off that section of the wall and totter over to Mark Woolley or Wid Chambers? As a prospective co-owner of this chamber of secrets (as a taxpayer) what's my cut?

i hate "tags" that amount to shitty penmanship and i hope those morons go to jail for making the world an uglier place.

but there's also some nice-lookin' graffiti showing up here and there. i noticed the other day that the pillars holding up i-5 look like perfect canvas that's been erased over and over again, as if a freeway underpass is ever going to look pretty. i have no insight one way or the other on a designated warehouse, but i'd love it if the police would stop painting over graffiti on the i-5 supports.

So, I don't see much resistance to the idea, just a few problems to be worked through.

Cicolini: liability-wise, you just get a good set of fans and a ventilation expert. And if someone does anything brilliant, you just take a photo. The lack of permanence makes it more ARTSY. You could even get all post-modern and talk about the graffiti's whitewashing as a metaphor for our inevitable death. Or something.

The interest the graffiti wall might draw to Portland could be part of marketing the city as "cool, creative and edgy," or whatever the strategy is this week.

Taggers are slime. They deface people's property with their spray cans or, more frequently, felt markers.

Some grafitti pieces, on the other hand, are pretty cool. Some of what you see on boxcars is awesome.

The demographic of a graffiti painter, as opposed to a gang related tagger, is interesting. Generally under achieving white males from upper middle class families. Legal walls may help somewhat, but they don't provide the "rush" these kids get from doing it on public property and having it seen by thousands daily. Remember when they hit the backside of Gordon's Fireplace Shop a few years back? Anything that can be seen from the Banfield is really popular with these kids.

And they're not all kids. Some of them stay active into their thirties. There are magazines devoted to this type of "art" and mail order and internet supply companies that sell special spray tips for aerosol cans and other accessories.

Commissioner Leonard: If you happen to read this post try to get a copy of a magazine called "Can Control" to learn more about the grafitti scene.

By the way, Matt. Taggers and graffiti vandals are generally charged with criminal mischief, a class C felony charge.

So many good ideas.

What if they use an old factory or something, and at the end of the month, or every two months, charge at the door to get in and see everything... Like an art show. Pictures could be taken of all the pieces and sold to make more money to pay for rent on said building? Then they paint it white and start over... Just an idea.

Thanks, Dave. But it was my understanding from talking with a couple of DAs that it's rare for taggers to be charged with any felony, much rarer for them to face jail time.

The problem being, the "same course of conduct" wording means they can only be done for the one tag, not the hundreds they might have done elsewhere. If prosecutors were able to aggregate tags into one case, then a tagger would be in a lot more trouble once he or she was caught.

Matt,
Maybe things have changed. My son's best friend who had just turned eighteen was arrested for graffiti in 1999 and charged with a felony. It was his first offense. An expensive attorney got it knocked down to a misdemeanor, but the initial charge was a felony charge.

Has anyone seen "The Graffiti Artist" ???

Probably one of the best, most under-rated, underseen movies ever filmed in Portland.

Caveat though: there's not much dialogue, which apparantly some of my friends weren't able to handle.

Dave—wow. That sounds like a highly unusual punishment. What had he done?

So- would people have to pay to use, or view the warehouse space? Or does it come out of tax funding? While we're at it, I'm really tired of working small format because my apartment won't accomodate larger work... could we have the city set up a warehouse for artists of other mediums to use as well? Or do I need to become more destructive, or at least a public nuisance to get my share of the pie?

Matt, I was under the (apparently false?) assumption that the reason Marcia Dennis makes me take photos of all the graffiti I have to report is because taggers can get busted for multiple tags. Man, if that's not the case, then that's really too bad.

Matt,
He was with a group of kids that were painting on tri met property near providence hospital. The other kids were under eighteen and got off easy. I think Mayor Katz was on a big graffiti crack down back then. I'm sure about the charges though... I had to loan his dad the money for the attorney.

A great spot for some graffiti art would be under the bridges on the East Bank Esplanade - I think it would do a lot to give a more urban feel to a beautiful walk!

As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes before heading to work last night, I noticed that my biodiesel Short-Bus had been tagged yet again, by some moronic gibbon named "Value Horse." Google just turned up quite a few hits for this wanker, and I've only started my research.

"Value Horse," I can promise you, that if I catch you in the act of this again, I will not call the cops, and you will not be using the hand holding that paint can or marker for some time. Count on that.

Moreover, there is a homeade product for cleaning rifle barrels, "Ed's Red," that neatly wipes your stupid masturbation right off of the surface of most anything, with a little elbow grease.

"Ed's Red" is basically equal parts Dextron III transmission fluid, deodorized K1 kerosene, Aliphatic Mineral Spirits, and Acetone. The full recipe is widely available online, and I've got tons of it.

Criminal Mischief comes in three degrees.
CM in the First Degree is the Class C felony and is applicable when there's intentional property damage in excess of $750. The other degrees of CM are misdemeanors- Class A and C respectively.
The DA can elect to treat a felony as a misdo, so in the case of Mr. Lister's friend's son, the DA may have cut the kid some slack due to no prior record.
There does seem to be push towards charging "serial tagggers" with felony CM under the theory that all of a person's tags are part of one uninterrupted course of conduct,(debatable) thus, a dollar amount in excess of $750 in the aggregate.
But way more common to the CM charged as a misdo.