Subscribe to RSSGraffiti To Be Tackled
Former cop commander and now Auckland Councillor, North Shore’s George Wood talked tough today about combating graffiti.
The council’s Community Safety Forum agreed to set up a region-wide taskforce to tackle graffiti vandalism with local boards pivotal to its success.
Mr Wood said the team will work with key partners - including KiwiRail, NZTA, police and local boards – to develop a “co-ordinated Auckland response” to the issue.
Tagging is all over the rail corridor - including at the flash new Newmarket station
A lengthy report on the issue to today’s meeting made no specific mention of the graffiti alongside the rail network and attacks on rail property but mentions KiwiRail and other transport agencies have been involved in the battle in the past.
The report sees three “E’s” as the secret to winning the war - eradication, enforcement and education - as the keys.
You can read the report by scrolling down the agenda here
Removing graffiti and train art from the rail network
It’s encouraging to see the council at last looking at a broad co-ordinated city-wide approach, which is exactly what is needed.
The rail network is badly disgraced with the scars of taggers’ work and regular readers will know how often new construction is attacked within 24 hours.
There is though a distinction between nonsensical tagging and the more mural train art approach such as around Morningside which can enhance a run down wall or space.
Morningside's New York style train art is great
The taskforce needs encouraging and a tough old fashioned cop to lead it is just what’s needed.
But let’s hope there is some real action as the report does feel rather politically correct and naive in its belief some of these constant offenders will succumb to some form of “education!”
11 Comments
good news
parts of the corridor are a mess.
wondering if all the graffiti will be cleaned up before the rwc
I think the key is to get rid of the tags ASAP. If the taggers know their tags will only last a few days, they will eventually stop.
And the cleaners need to stop painting in slightly different coloured grey than the buildings actual grey colour, as it becomes evident where the tagging was and makes it more likely that it will be tagged again.
I would suggest Auckland Transport create a task force, who will go weekly down the lines(1 team between Otahuhu and Papakura, 1 between Britomart and Otahuhu loop incl. Onehunga, and 1 on the western line to Waitakere), where theyll get rid of tags and rubbish.
The smart way would be to spend a minimum of 70% of your budget on getting real artistic graffiti bombers (painters) to paint murals wit council support. This will not only make our city more vibrant & colorful (and not look so dull & sterile) but make NZ leaders in artistic expression for Australasia. Look at Melbourne for example: they have great council mural tours which brings in international visitors and not to mention grafitti always has its place in a city.
The key is to balance the good from the ugly. Wasted budgets on cleaning up when investment on education is null avoid. Investment on workshops for a tagging community would be the likely win for all. Even the All Blacks are down with the kids - while people with no future vision for our youth are working in the wrong places - its a system that will never change.
Wake up - graffiti is alive and well worldwide - accept it and make positive change for it to work with our communities, system and people with power & a vision.
The smart way would be to spend a minimum of 70% of your budget on getting real artistic graffiti bombers (painters) to paint murals with council support. This will not only make our city more vibrant & colorful (and not look so dull & sterile) but make NZ leaders in artistic expression for Australasia. Look at Melbourne for example: they have great council mural tours which brings in international visitors and not to mention graffiti always has its place in a city.
The key is to balance the good from the ugly. Wasted budgets on cleaning up when investment on education is null avoid. Investment on workshops for a tagging community would be the likely win for all. Even the All Blacks are down with the kids - while people with no future vision for our youth are working in the wrong places - its a system that will never change.
Wake up - graffiti is alive and well worldwide - accept it and make positive change for it to work with our communities and system and think outside the square to make our walls not look so grey, boring and tedious.
Its a bit of work but once this formula has a encouraging pattern - you will most likely save a lot of the almighty dollar for other areas. And lets face it - that’s what your councilors and other piers are all about right?
Plant the corridors - let them try tagging a shrub!
@allcity - in with the good (eg Melbourne) and shoot the bad (tagger) and of course a bit of planting wouldn’t go a miss
Some councils around the world have dedicated walls for use by graffiti “artists”
Allcity - “The smart way would be to spend a minimum of 70% of your budget on getting real artistic graffiti bombers (painters) to paint murals wit council support”
Tag your house, your car, your property but leave everyone else’s alone. And don’t ask to be paid to do it either.
I cringe when I read that as it absolute nonsense. Taggers/bombers call them what you like are vandals whether some people pretend they are artists or some other PC crap. What is the mentality that movtivates losers to wreck things.
When the turn table was filled in near the Stand Parnell and “artistically” painted all that did was to encourage the morons to tag over the top of it. The same with the train mural on the back of the Mobil just near Britomart.
Vandalism is not vibrant. People need to learn to not trash other peoples property be it the public’s or a private individual. There is no grey way, no compromise, no social working navel gazing 3rd way.
Don’t bugger around, paint the vandalism out, catch the losers who have no point in life and deal to them as hard as we can.
If graffiti is art, why don’t the scum put it on their stolen cars & state houses? Because it’s marking their territory, same as a dog pissing against a wall.
They used in say that graffiti cost Manukau ratepayers $1M pa.
I am sure someone has thought about this before:
Vandalism is a social problem, and “…” therefore acts of “graffiti-ing” will always happen, and so there will always be graffiti images. It makes sense then that if it is known for sure that there will be graffiti in a certain place, the ones who do the graffiti should be under the control of the legitimate owners.
Of course, the preferred situation would be where there is no graffiti (legitimate or not) at all.
^^
oh look! its a “cool” “gangster” Vandal!
Auckland Council is focussing on two stretches of rail corridor initially - Britomart to Morningside (Rugby World Cup-related) and Britomart to Glen Innes.
They are using a modification of the UK system to measure graffiti vandalism: NI195, http://cleanliness-indicator.defra.gov.uk/what.aspx
Starting in the west the score was 60ish out of 100 before any eradication, and within a couple of months it was up to 80ish. There is hope that the eastern portion will respond in a similar fashion.
(For comparison, the isthmus scored 80ish back in early 2009 and is now mid- to high-nineties.)
The war is being won, and the new battlefield is now the rail corridors.
Finally, it is a myth that taggers are frustrated artists - 99% of them are just plain vandals.