Since my days of taking the bus have began, almost 10 years ago, I have never liked the fact that several people in this city think it is okay to deface public property to make a statement. I get that people are trying to display a message of anti-establishment, which is fine, but the amount of money and time that has to go into cleaning up and preventing graffiti on public transit it outrageous. These statements can be made in much more efficient and respectful ways. As Ley and Cybriwsky indicate, graffiti is “an outlet for often deeply felt but rarely articulated sentiments and attitudes” (Ley and Cybriwsky, 1974: 492), and I think this to be a positive and non-violent way of getting a message across. But, there is a lot of graffiti out there, particularly on transit, which only sends a message of ignorance and thoughtlessness. Placement of graffiti is not random. It is an act of performance for a particular audience and it is placed in a certain area for a certain group to see (Ley and Cybriwsky, 1974). That makes sense, as you would place a certain message in an area for the right people to see it, in order for your message to me heard. But, I do not understand the message those who write graffiti on public transit are trying to portray; that being said, I may not be the audience these people are trying to reach.
Ley and Cybriwsky talk about how much money can be wasted on simply cleaning up graffiti in public transit areas. In one year alone in New York City, around five hundred thousand dollars was spent on cleaning up graffiti (Ley and Cybriwsky, 1974). Graffiti is a great way to display attitudes, behavioral dispositions and social processes, especially where direct measurement is difficult (Ley and Cybriwsky, 1974); by reading graffiti, we usually can see what social issues are in a particular area and city. But on buses, I find the graffiti to be meaningless tags that young teenagers are trying to mark up every spot possible for some sort of social recognition. I may be missing the point, as I have never found it necessary to write on a bus seat and have never been a teenage boy, but I do not know that there is any other purpose than to cause trouble. I find it extremely frustrating that money, coming from tax payers and bus takers, is being put into the clean up of this graffiti, instead of going towards a better purpose, like more buses or better forms of public transportation. I all in all find it aggravating, and every time I sit on a bus I am reminded of the money wasted as I stare at yet another form of graffiti on the seat.
I do know that not all graffiti is destructive. There are large murals and wall pieces that I have a large respect for in this city. Vancouver has a large variety of graffiti to look at, I just think that graffiti on buses should be stopped as it is not portraying the same positive and powerful messages that other graffiti can have.
