Marks of the City

By Alejandro Poli Jr.

An L.A. muralist ponders the shifting views about graffiti and street art.

An interesting thing has happened in Los Angeles culture over the past decade or two with regard to people’s attitudes about everyday graffiti on the streets. Just a few months ago, a stalled-out, uncompleted high-rise construction site in downtown Los Angeles was hit by graffiti writers, who tagged outside-facing surfaces of multiple floors with their art. At first, people seemed offended. But some folks soon began to say that the artwork fit the buildings’ spaces really well. In fact, the high-rise seemed to be a well-suited canvass for the art, kind of beautiful, even.

graffiti artist standing in front of a mural

In many respects, it seems there is an acceptance (or maybe just apathy) for all forms of graffiti — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It seems that Angelenos don’t seem quite as upset as they once were about the rampant vandalism and tagging that covers so many surfaces all over the city today. Whether it’s an iconic street mural that just got tagged for the umpteenth time or a church wall that was just randomly defaced, I don’t feel the same public outcry that once dominated news cycles or affected city policy. In many respects, it seems there is an acceptance (or maybe just apathy) for all forms of graffiti — the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, I got to thinking, what’s changed?

Well, there are definitely the obvious culprits like social media and mobile phones, which have in countless ways disrupted all our lives. Technology has definitely impacted the way we navigate space and view our surroundings, so that can definitely be a factor. But, fundamentally, I think more has changed in our society than just that. Maybe people are more worried about so many other problems these days like the out-of-control homelessness crisis, the seemingly unending saga of city corruption, or the dawn of flash mob robberies … coming soon to a store near you! I think these are all things that push graffiti and vandalism onto a much lower rung of the societal problem ladder.

There was a time when politicians and the media would use buzz words like “tag bangers” or “gang graffiti” to scare everyday citizens into voting for laws that enforced the arrest and conviction of graffiti practitioners. There were freeway campaigns like the “Adopt-A-Wall” program, through which, for a fee, you could put your organization logo on the exit sign of that quarter-mile stretch of freeway that you were supposedly maintaining graffiti-free. There were numerous signs put up all over the city and on public transportation with “1-800 WE TIP” hotlines that you could anonymously call and report tagging and vandalism and supposedly receive a cash reward if vandals were caught and convicted. Don’t get me started on police enforcement! There were LAPD and Sheriff’s Department vandal squads and gang units, MTA undercover officers, and, of course, the infamous helicopter “ghetto birds” with their infra-red cameras to stalk graffiti writers and chase them around the L.A. River during the midnight hours.

When I was a teenager just starting out in the graffiti game, as long as you didn’t commit more than $2000 worth of damage you couldn’t be charged with a felony. By the time I turned 21, that amount had been lowered to $400, and you could easily be fined tens of thousands of dollars for restitution and do some hard time as well.

All these things were considered acceptable at the time. It was a full-on war on graffiti funded by our own tax dollars. Millions and millions of dollars were wasted on these campaigns the only real results of which were criminalizing and incarcerating L.A. youth. The harsh reality is that these programs targeted mostly our black and brown communities. I remember as a young graffiti artist having cops point guns at my face on several occasions simply because I was spray-painting on walls that I was being commissioned to paint. Thankfully, all these years later the tide has turned.

In the early 2000s, a new term — “street art” — began to be kicked around the city. Many of these artists were often college-educated white suburban kids. For some reason, they weren’t being targeted as aggressively by cops. Their work mostly strayed from the conventional lettering piece or tags and was much more graphic and even cartoon friendly. This type of art became much more palatable to business owners and the public at large. This began the shifting of opinion of the L.A. urban dweller.

Galleries began popping up, including my very own Crewest Gallery that ran for 10 years and helped educate countless residents, from art collectors to politicians. In 2011, MoCA showcased the first-of-its-kind large survey of street art and graffiti titled “Art in the Streets.” Around the same time, a well-organized coalition of artists, curators, and city officials drafted a new mural ordinance that was adopted in 2013. This led to an explosion of murals all over the city’s walls and created a street art renaissance that was especially noticeable in the Arts District.

I think these are all major contributing factors to the place we find ourselves in today: A new-found love for graffiti in our city. Or maybe it’s the fact that we, the original practitioners of L.A. graffiti culture, simply grew up. We are lawyers, educators, policy makers, city officials, and, most importantly, parents to a new generation. Whatever the reason, graffiti has won over the soul of the City of Angels.