On 8/24/05 5:31 PM, "Dan McGrath" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Is graffitti a gang problem? I think this is an >> assumption now considered fact by people without >> really looking into the problem. >> >> My assumption is that most of the kids who spray paint >> garages and businesses are just that, kids. Kids who >> live in the neighborhood, go to school in the >> neighborhood, so on. > > Yes, most graffiti is related to gang activity. When I was younger, and > dumber (High School), I ran in gang circles. I know how to identify > different kinds of graffiti. Sure, there are some taggers who just do it for > kicks, and notoriety, but looking around my neighborhood, the vast majority > of graffiti consists of gang and crew names and symbols. Around uptown, it's > more taggers. Around here, it's more sinister than that. > > The notion that most graffiti in our neighborhood comes from suburban kids > is ludicrous. Kids aren't getting Mom to drop them off on 38th Street with > cans of spray paint. They aren't taking a bus from Mall of America to > plaster garages with gang signs. Maybe it makes us feel better to think that > it's those darn suburbanites (and it's harmless, though annoying), but > that's just sticking our collective heads in the sand. I was just at a Windom Park Citizens in Action meeting recently and one of the featured presentations that evening was on graffiti, how to remove it and changes in how the city responds to it...namely, it's now handled by Solid Waste & Recycling's Clean City Minneapolis program rather than the police department. Some of that information presented can be found here: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/graffiti/ Also, I didn't write it down and maybe my memory is faulty, but I swore I heard it stated that only about 15% of the graffiti in my area of the city is actually gang-related. The rest is mostly kids being stupid. I don't think there was a distinction made as to whether they're stupid suburban kids or stupid local kids, but it's not gang stuff. I know some of my fellow Windom Park residents at least lurk on this forum, so hopefully one of them can correct me if I got that statistic wrong. Also, one interesting feature on the city graffiti web site is samples of types of graffiti. You can find that here: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/graffiti/types.asp#TopOfPage Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
