Michael Atherton wrote: > Let's just say that graffiti is a sign post on the road > to deterioration. I've lived in four cities and have watched > it occur in all of them.
CD: I received an off-list reply to my post regarding graffiti which contained a Mpls Police Graffiti Task force Report from Sgt. Rick Duncan dated 1-6-2003. This report contains maps of each precinct with dot symbols indicating graffiti incidents classified as either "tagger", "gang", or "unknown". These maps appear to confirm my suspicion that most tagger graffiti is concentrated in parts of the city that ARE NOT suffering decline and diminished quality of life. Lowry Hill East and surrounding Uptown areas contained 55% of all Mpls mapped tagger graffiti incidents between Oct and Dec 2002. I don't see boarded up buildings on Hennepin and Lyndale in the near future. In fact, these neighborhoods seem to be thriving, desirable places to own property and businesses. I'm not asserting that graffiti is not a crime, or that it is not vandalism, or that is is not annoying to you. Just remember that although you might not like looking at graffiti, do not assume it warns of impending deterioration of our city. So before you light your torches and get your mob together to issue citations to parents of taggers, think about what some explanations for this phenomenon could be. Then proceed to work on the hundreds of more pressing problems facing people. Conor Donnelly Waitepark It isn�t always easy to separate disease from its mythology or violence from its trivialization. Not that we�re necessarily eager to make distinctions. -Don DeLillo, published in Dimensions � A Journal of Holocaust Studies, 1989 TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
