After visiting a couple of larger cities in the past year or two - San Fran, Minneapolis, Portland, and Orlando, I have noticed how prevalent murals are in urban areas... except Chicago. I know that Chicago has a history of being really tough on graffiti vandalism, but I find it interesting that there aren't more murals around the city or "street-art." San Francisco is covered in graffiti art, but it is absolutely amazing. Eric and I think that the businesses actually hire artists to graffiti art on their buildings so it's not a blank canvas for a juvenile with a spray can and too much time on his hands.
After doing a little research on the always reliable wikipedia, the former (and beloved) Chicago mayor, Richard Daley enacted an anti-graffiti initiative in 1993 called "Graffiti Busters" with the sole purpose of "eliminating graffiti, street art and gang-related vandalism in Chicago." Oh yah, and it costs on average $4 million a year (9 million in 2010). So apparently we do have graffiti murals here... they are just covered up within 24 hours...
But what about the murals that are truly pieces of art? Can't those be allowed? Or is it a slippery slope to head down? This is one of the only murals in the city and it's a huge! This is on the side of the MDA Chicago Apartment building - very cool apartments (hip, fun colors, bamboo floors and environmentally friendly).
But this is absolutely nothing compared to San Francisco. Here are some of my of favorite murals/street art from around the city. I tried to narrow it down to three images, but I just couldn't do it. There were too many I wanted to share. These were all taken in June of 2011.
So what are your thoughts? You like Chicago's clean up to appear clean cut approach or do you appreciate San Francisco's artistic community showing their skills everywhere you turn? I definitely see positives and negatives to each strategy, but I think I am going to have to side with San Fran on this one. Even if there ends up being a couple vandalized areas, I think the good outweighs the bad. Who knows, maybe I will think a little differently when I get older, but for now, I respect the time and talent it takes to make these murals happen.
I guess I like the clean look if I'm walking/driving past daily, but for visiting, the murals are awesome. I just might get sick of some of the images quickly. Love these photos. I can't wait to show my class your site. That lesson is pushed back to Wednesday or Thursday now. Can't wait! You'll have LOTS of hits that day!
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