Raven's View

Mar 12- I talked with Constable Scott Mills of Division 14 in Toronto - that includes from Spadina west to Jamieson, and from the Lake north to just past Bloor. His signature file says he is  "Toronto School Crimestoppers Cop, Legal Graffiti Art Guy". Typical of his down to earth attitude. I've included a copy of an interview he did recently for Gallery Crawl. Download gc_interview_constable_scott_mills_070311.pdf (799.0K) he is also Operations Director for NOtoGANGS. His approach is to give youth that are busted for illegal tagging an option to join his program. They start off cleaning up illegal tags, and then get to work with, and learn from, established artists, in the creation of large graffiti murals. These are done with the permission of the property owners of course, and usually the artists are given license to design what they want. If the piece gets some minor tags, the artists repair it - if it's completely bombed then a new piece is done.

Mar 15 - Although I had not heard back from them on th previous material, I sent this additional info in to the same city list, along with a copy of the above interview of Scott Mills.

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Leslie, etc.

I had sent you some information three weeks ago on some of the positive aspects of legal graffiti, along with links to the overall management programs used by Gatineau and Toronto. I have not had any questions or feedback on what I have sent, and don’t see any of it reflected in your proposed bylaw. In fact, even though it should be a draft, and consultation has been requested, many of the issues seem already decided, with a somewhat one-sided and narrow presentation for people to decide from. I’m not sure if this approach is that of council, or staff, or both.

Since then I have also talked with Constable Scott Mills of Division 14 in Toronto, who has sent me a number of useful files and links. I have attached one such document, an interview he did recently. I have more material if any of you are interested in following up further on this.

I have also made arrangements to meet on March 26th with Scott and some of the other key players in his initiative.

He will also be speaking April 3rd in Toronto at the International BIA Conference, his topic The Problem of Graffiti – New Initiatives. 

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Mar 15 - I learned that the City of Ottawa had prepared a draft graffiti bylaw, and was looking for feedback via a public consultation form. I was concerned that although the form said it was listing the issues, they seemed to be all from one viewpoint, without considering creative ways to manage the problem of illegal graffiti, ways that also included the youth in the list of external stakeholders. I sent the following to a number of my contacts in the hip-hop community, along with a copy of the comment form. Deadline is before the next city meeting on this, which is on the 20th.

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Hi

As many of you already know, I’ve been a photographer of graffiti as an art form for 8 years – both in Toronto and Ottawa. From that I got involved into more of the hip-hop culture – breakdancing and DJ-s. As a fan and as a volunteer only, as I’m an older retired (and fragile) guy.

I’ve been working with Councilor Bob Monette here in Orleans to do a pilot project legal graffiti wall (or two) in the Orleans Sportsplex Skateboard park. This is patterned after the legal walls that Gatineau has used in their parks for a number of years. They have found that legal walls do work, if carefully sited and part of an overall graffiti management program that also includes the youth as stakeholders. The graffiti is controlled, "bleed" in not an issue, the youth gain a respect for property and involvement in the community, and many residents find they enjoy this art form.

I have found successes in other cities, such as St. John’s, Philadelphia, and closer to here – Toronto. Toronto has a city wide Graffiti Transformation project that funds youth at risk via community associations to work with property owners to replace tagged walls –permanently- with works of art. In addition, Constable Scott Mills of Division 14 there has developed his role as Crime Stoppers officer for Toronto schools to include a very successful program. He offers those caught as illegal taggers an opportunity to join up with and learn from a crew of experienced graffiti artists – they start with painting over illegal tags in the area and then eventually work with their mentors to approach property owners and obtain permission, and funds, for major works on the buildings. The youth learn respect and responsibility and pride in their work, the adults gain a better opinion of the youth, illegal tagging is reduced, and the community gains the art. In fact, one of "his" walls, in an alley formerly full of garbage and haunted by drug users, is now on used on the Rick Mercer Report "rant", and is frequented by tourists with cameras.

Ottawa is drafting a bylaw that seeks to make all graffiti illegal, even if done with permission, and treats the symptom with increased police patrols and repeated fines. I have been suggesting that a more complete management program similar to Toronto’s be developed. This would include a component to involve the youth as other than just criminals to be fined, give them and property owners the option and process to work on a creative solution together. In addition to those areas of static murals, I believe the artists in Ottawa also need more free-style, legal areas, for whatever they want to put up, whenever, as individuals or crews. We have so far only the legal House of Paint (Bronson bridge) as well as the almost legal Tech wall downtown at Slater and Bronson.

The City is looking for feedback on this bylaw, and the issue of graffiti –I’ve attached a copy of the form they are using for this. Many of you will see the negative slant, and some generalizations – please take a few minutes to add not just opinions but constructive criticism, and then send it back in to the City. Their deadline is March 20th. If you email it in, please cc me, as I’d like to see what the response is.

If you’d like more information don’t hesitate to contact me. Please pass this on, especially to your Ottawa friends. Comment sheet is below.

Download Commentsheet.doc

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Mar 15 - the same night I got a copy of Stephen Leafloor's input - and with his OK I passed on to the group I had sent the comment form to, as below:

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FYI – Stephen said I could pass this on to all, he speaks from experience and says it well. He will also be adding specific comments to some points in the Comment Form if he has time.
I’m also attaching a copy of an interview Const. Scott Mills did in Toronto recently on his program. I had sent a note to some of city staff and council on Feb 23rd with information on various programs – it’s on my blog.
I’ll add other material I have on this to the same blog post, to keep the link fixed.
Mike

Stephen's response to the City:

I have just received a copy of the city's Graffiti Management Strategy – Public Consultation .
I am a dad of 3 and a social worker for 25years working with youth at risk. I also completed my Masters Thesis in 1985 on Hiphop and its importance for Social Workers, and I have looked at Graffiti (as one of the elements of Hiphop ) at length over the years.
I will try and find the time to respond to some of what is in your document but quite honestly I'm a bit shocked at the pervasive slant as Graffiti positioned as only a bad thing.
It reflects little understanding or knowledge about youth culture and appears to reflect a naive opinion that Graffiti can be dealt with by bylaws and enforcement.
Your topics like education do not explore teaching youth about the history of Graffiti and trying to look at considering it as a viable art form- with certain public walls designated at Graffiti walls. How about making it mandatory that all police working with youth need to go back to school and educate themselves about current youth cultures so that they can at least try and understand what is going on. I suspect most police have very little understanding about the history of graffiti and its relevance to youth- hence they only focus on enforcement.I think that its the job of anyone working with youth to constantly update their knowledge base and skills.
If you are going to release a document like this you need to try and educate yourself as to both sides of the issue.It is the responsibility of police, social workers, educators and public policy makers on youth issues to take the time to try and understand something before they push forward with it.
I am not for the destruction of private property- but there are much better alternatives to look at- once you take the time to try and understand something like the culture of Hiphop.
Please note that I know a fair bit about all of this as I work across Canada in the Arctic and with first nations communities- doing social work programs through Hiphop. http://blueprintforlife.ca
Some of the work we are doing up north is being talked about as the most important community development and youth outreach in 20 yrs. And guess what- we also teach Graffiti- even in schools and classrooms.The National Crime Prevention strategies in Nunavut, NWT and the Yukon are looking at what we are doing as a model for community development.
Communities need to look creatively at how to work with and through youth cultures so that young people can continue to have a voice and express themselves creatively.
Please, Please do not make any hasty decisions on these issues without being fully informed.You need to look at programs in other city's that work with the concept that graffiti in itself is not a bad thing- but that destruction of private or public property is. It also warrants discussions around other issues about who makes the decisions on other public spaces and the bombardment we are subjected to ever day in the world of advertisements. Personally I would rather see a unique mural done by a young artist tha[n] another ad for McDonalds or a car company.
Feel free to call me if you would like to talk about this further.
Thanks
Steve Leafloor [phone number]

Mar - 15  I talked with Kay Anonsen, Arts and Cultural Development Coordination for St. John's, Nfld., they have both legal walls and an active wall mural project in place. With all the hills and retaining walls in the city there is no shortage of boring concrete to be livened up. And that's the way that they approach it, from an artistic point of view, to beautify the city, rather than expecting a definite link with crime reduction.  The initial funding for the legal walls was via a Canada Council Grant several years ago, coordinated by Catherine Watson of Ottawa. The project, Terminus 1525,  involved four cities. St. John's hired Montgomery Hall to act as artist and facilitator, and the project grew to include several walls, with additional funding from the city. The work continues, as the legal free-style walls are always being changed, plus there are murals to be added throughout the city. For the murals, artists are expected to bid with a design and budget, whether they are a youth group or a dedicated mural artist. For either group, once the art is done, respect is shown and tagging is rare. I asked again specifically if there was an issue with graffiti "bleeding" from legal walls to other areas, and was told by Kay that it was not a problem, they ensure the legal walls are located away from other structures.  This is the same answer I got from my official contacts for the Gatineau and the Toronto programs. Kay has a view of one legal wall from her home, and does not worry about tags - she just enjoys the view.  She admits some pieces are more exiting than others, depending on the artist, but it's art and it's dynamic.

Mar 19 - I received a copy of the following comment, sent by P. Young of Toronto to Leslie Vanclief:

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Having worked with youth for many years, I found that you must understand the present culture and values in which they live in order to blend their perceptions with those of society at large. As leaders we must help them to see the grey areas since they tend to see concepts only in black or white.If you use conflict and confrontation, you will be met with the same amount of aggression. No one will have gained any understanding if all you do is use your authority to say "NO" without some degree of moderation on each side. Your Graffiti Management Document is narrowminded and I would like to make some observations concerning this document.

You have outlined a proposal of conflict between those who use graffiti as an expression of art and those who are in positions of power (police) as well as those you propose to hire to eradicate graffiti.

Your statement of empowerment only empowers youth to remove what you consider offensive and does little to use this experience for them to be creative or take pride and ownership in their involvement.

Education should be used to open your mind to new concepts and ideas not to promote a narrow and one sided view of what you perceive as a problem.You have outlined an educational program to further your viewpoint and get everyone in lock step with this antiquated understanding of graffiti as a problem rather than an art form.

There are blanket statements used such as "Legal Graffiti Walls have not been proven to be effective at reducing graffiti" with no proof that this statement is indeed fact. From what I have read, this is not the case in both Hull and Toronto where youth groups have been involved and "empowered" to establish both graffiti walls as well as work with property owners to use their space in a manner where all parties are in agreement. This involves the youth in a far more positive manner than your document sets out to do.You have an opportunity to establish a positive environment in your community but you seem to be content to establish a narrow minded community where growth and change are not accepable but rather a problem which must be eradicated and or reported to those in authority.

It may be time to rename graffiti and use a new label - STREETART. This label may be less offensive and with a new name you may be encouraged to draft a plan which sets out some exciting and effective new directions for both the youth and your community.