Tempe to review graffiti policy

Graffiti artist says he hopes city looks at difference in tagging, art

 by Emma Breysse
 published on Monday, March 31, 2008

John Battaglia / THE STATE PRESS

TAGGED: Tempe’s mayor and a city councilman have agreed to re-examine how the city deals with graffiti like these markings at Southern Avenue and Hardy Drive.

With city officials looking to re-examine Tempe's policy on graffiti, some supporters of graffiti art are hoping that their voices will be heard as well.

Currently, when graffiti taggers go out to paint the town, the city of Tempe goes out and paints it back — a procedure the City Council will discuss updating and improving next month.

City Councilman Ben Arredondo said that he believes the current system is not focused enough on prevention, and that the clean-up, while prompt, can be too visible.

"There is too much graffiti, and sometimes the clean-up paint is not matched well to the original color of what is being painted over," he said at an issue review session two weeks ago. "We need to address our graffiti problem."

Mayor Hugh Hallman agreed to discuss the issue at an upcoming review session at Arredondo's request, though the date of the session has not yet been determined.

John Osgood, the city's deputy public works manager, said that his department also feels the need to step up graffiti programs.

"We agree that graffiti vandalism is a problem that we are trying to address," he said. "We really do want to live up to our responsibility to keep Tempe free of vandalism."

Currently, residents can call into a city graffiti hotline to report incidents, and if the marks are on public property, the city sends out crews of public works staff to paint over it.

Osgood said the city has responded to increased need by updating the hotline to make it clearer and by adding extra crews on weekends.

While the city is beginning to amp up its efforts, at least one member of the graffiti art community worries that his work will be lumped in with the taggers' in any decisions made.

Justin Smith, a graphic design freshman, is a graffiti artist, and he said he hopes the City Council keeps in mind the distinction between his work and the work of tagging vandals.

"When it comes to tagging, that's something that I've always looked down upon," he said. "That's something that I think deserves punishment."

Smith said he defines tagging as simply scrawling a name, as opposed to putting effort into self-expression that can take many forms.

"The difference is tagging is two seconds of writing, and it's sloppy, and it's ugly," he said. "That's as opposed to three to four hours of work in the pitch black darkness, looking over your shoulder every few seconds and still creating something beautiful."

Despite these differences, both kinds of graffiti are illegal in most parts of the country. But some cities, including Phoenix, have designated areas where it is legal for artists like Smith to work.

Elma Dzanic, the senior program coordinator with ASU's Intergroup Relations Center, said that graffiti art is an important part of American hip-hop culture and isn't necessarily negative.

"I definitely do think it's a form of art, no questions asked," she said. "There should be an outlet for these artists to express themselves. Tagging is a whole different issue."

Dzanic said that she hopes the council opens a dialogue with the graffiti art community, and that the city and the artists can come to a compromise.

Dzanic and Smith both said that they hope to see city officials thinking more along the lines of designated graffiti areas than blanket penalties, and Osgood said that there is certainly reason to believe a compromise can be reached.

"Ninety-five percent of what we see in Tempe is not gang-related or art," he said. "We recognize the difference."

Reach the reporter at: emma.breysse@asu.edu.