Graffiti

So I just walked through the alcove that joins two crescents near where I reside and there are a crew of workers 'cleaning up' graffiti. Known I believe in graffiti circles as 'buffing.' One of them asked if I wanted to help paint over the graffiti, and it occurred to me that I couldn't imagine a bigger waste of time and resources than cleaning graffiti.

There isn't really any good graffiti around Kew anyhows, it's at best throw-up bubble lettered outlines, and mostly just shitty tags and scrawls. But this:

1. I used to be one of those philistines that said things like 'I don't mind good graffiti, but these tags and stuff are just bad.' But then I became enlightened, or at least had a blinding flash of obviousness and realised this is the equivalent of saying 'I enjoy good music but I can't stand these kids that are just learning to play.'
That is the status quo mentality of the casual graffiti observer is to think that good graffiti is produced by the visual arts equivalent of Mozart like prodigy, they aren't. It takes dozens of shitty pieces to get your head around the tools of the trade and work out your compositions.
Thus I don't really mind bad graffiti these days, because I understand you need it to get the good graffiti. And these aspiring graffiti artists need space.

2. Robert Doyle or Ted Ballieu or one of those liberal douchebags instigated this 'initiative' of cleaning up Graffiti, and while being sure to protect Melbourne's heritage listed and tourist attracting laneways, whose pavements are beaten daily by photogrophers with little talent photographing some of Melbourne's best art, and some glued up posters by Shephard Fairey, they pushed for removal of this 'vandalism.'
I could almost guaruntee, if the genealogy was possible that every featured artist in Melbourne's famous laneways, at St Kilda Junction station etc. have some crappy bubble lettered graffiti thrown up on the side of an abandoned milkbar in Melbourne's burbs somewhere sometime.
What would be nice is if these artists in the making could do their throwups freely, and indeed on top of one anothers. To put some method to the madness of where they choose to practice their graffiti.
If I was a council douchebag, a lord mayor or otherwise I would address graffiti with a piece of policy I call 'fair game.'
This can be observed from almost any of Melbourne's metropolitan train lines - Buildings are built that have slab concrete fronting onto our field of vision. Factories and what not.
Beyond railway facades, these buildings are everywhere anyway, footpaths with sheer concrete walls, 70's mustard coloured brick faces. Footpaths cutting behind a printers shop. It costs money to build pretty, and many build ugly 'direct to public' pasta and bubble wrap factories. These low cost utilitarian ugly facades I would have declared 'fair game' meaning if somebody wants to paint on a wall the property owner didn't bother to paint themselves then they are free to do so. At no risk of incarceration or community service, indeed they need not even seek permission to render a community service.
And if it's bad graffiti people can just paint better pieces over it. If the owner demands a certain standard of graffiti they can commission an artist of their liking to do it, and once painted it would no longer be 'fair game.'

3. Today Tonight or ACA or one of those garbage news programs ran a special report on train graffiti vandals, even from the promo (I didn't watch the story) laying blame at the feet of the graffiti artists for delays to our regularly scheduled train services. To me villafying graffiti artists seems pointless. This is a design challenge.
Metro opted for corporate branding that looks like a prepackaged microsoft office theme. They kept the cream interior and geometric upholstery of connex and added a geometric corporate blue exterior to the trains. They could have decorated their trains with colours and designs that would in effect make it very hard or time consuming for a graffiti artists work to become visible. Graffiti camouflage if you will.
Or again just commission graffiti artists to acctually paint your train. That way you can ensure a certain quality and specify shit like 'don't paint over the windows.' Graffiti artists for the most part seem to respect eachother, and you don't paint over another artists work, or crews tag lightly.

That's all I have to say on that.