Duggan Shows His True Colors in the GRCC

[401don]

Broderick Tower residents are receiving eviction notices due to unsightly mural on side of building.

[Willi]

A building owner cannot paint his building """anyway""" he chooses.

Try painting KKK on a building downtown in big black letters and see if someone doesn't
attempt to fine the owner for the mere use of "paint" on his building as artful expression

Everything has limits.............some people really don't like the graffiti or appreciate it

[Scottathew]

A building owner cannot paint his building """anyway""" he chooses.

Try painting KKK on a building downtown in big black letters and see if someone doesn't
attempt to fine the owner for the mere use of "paint" on his building as artful expression

Everything has limits.............some people really don't like the graffiti or appreciate it

Well, quite a few people DO like it. Do their opinions not count? And most importantly, the building owners like it and permitted it.

[Honky Tonk]

Someone got their tag painted over......

[DetroitPlanner]

Well, quite a few people DO like it. Do their opinions not count? And most importantly, the building owners like it and permitted it.

Willi speaks from experience.

[rex]

SMH at uptight dyes people that get worked up over whipped cream on shit

[rex]

Just because a business owner allows it - DOES NOT make it legal.
Let's be clear here, it is a public space, used by all, seen by all.
--If prostitution occurred with the chick thrown up against the wall, in a public space,
it would not be legal, even if the owner likes to ""get some"" and condones the practice.
Even if the chick screamed PERFORMANCE ART ....it would still be seen as a crime.

It is illegal, until the day the law is changed for anyone to paint anything anywhere.

thats you being clear?

[hewettbr]

Well, quite a few people DO like it. Do their opinions not count? And most importantly, the building owners like it and permitted it.

didn't we as a forum determine that Duggan said art was going to be exempt and that this is now just becoming a pissing contest of radical opinions.

[Willi]

If the graffiti "art" - in a public space - makes people feel uncomfortable, ill at ease, apprehensive, etc. does that not count in a similar way to distributing hate literature in a public space, hate speech via megaphone in a public place, etc.

A public space should be neutral where everyone feels safe, at ease, without controversy.

[Willi]

Willi speaks from experience.

WTF - explain yourself a bit DetroitPlanner

[Danny]

You folks don't appreciate real social art. Let the murals stand and don't blame Duggan for this mess.

[canuck]

That doggone Duggan done and did it again. Spray painted my faith in municipal administrators.

[Willi]

The graffiti "art" is just made up bullshit, like Ebonics.
People, black and white, regard it as a sign of limited education or sophistication

[Gannon]

Hmm. It sounds like perhaps your true colors are the ones that are showing, friend.

I have NEVER been shy with my critique of this man, and only backed down when he won that magical write-in campaign because in our representative democracy of human beings...our leaders deserve respect until they prove otherwise. I was clear about my fears of lingering McNamarahood tendencies.

In my defense, though, I've been cooped up in the hospital for a few days...pumped up on steroids and heavy doses of albuteral...and haven't slept but 5 hours since Sunday morning. And the joint had worse food than prison! [[at least that 24-bed county lockup in Wyoming I visited a decade ago)


So...my comments stand until this is cleared up...GSCC is facing those $8000 worth of tickets, and I'd like to see the mayor earn back his capital M by publicly tearing them up on all the news channels. Maybe even find a way to promote the corridor with their amazing mission.

I'm easy to please, but obviously on a hair trigger for errant behavior.

Cheers!

[Gannon]

I didn't see this much outrage when thug KK was raping and pillaging the City of Detroit during his infamous reign. Maybe there are other agendas in play here???

You've GOT to be kidding me.

One of his thugs visited my home to chase me off...and I know my comments were discussed over some of their meetings at a certain downtown hangout near the bus station. An old friend worked there and called me twice to warn me to stop posting under my real name.

My passion against Kwhyme knew no bounds, he was destroying the city of my birth. He almost even got what he deserved!

Cheers,
John

[Gannon]

SMH at uptight dyes people that get worked up over whipped cream on shit

I must've been late to the trough...I never saw the whipped cream. I think MikeM was spraying it out of his plane.

Cheers!

[downtownguy]

A public space should be neutral where everyone feels safe, at ease, without controversy.

Since it was built, I've never liked the way the Compuware HQ Building looks. And that it hovers over Campus Martius adds to my displeasure. Willi, could you see if Duggan would have that eyesore torn down for me??

[canuck]

What strikes me is that NYC used to have 90% of the world's graffiti in the early eighties, everywhere else was just treading on new ground. Now, a lot of large urban and small scale city environments are messed up with graffiti. My city is covered in it and it is ugly. NYC is now a 100 times more sober visually speaking than it was 35 years ago. I remember not seeing through subway car windows. Add to that, the noise and grime and it is a very depressing experience on a daily basis. It is not only a question of property defacement in terms of have-nots seeking to take ownership of a building, it is more about how a secretive minority seeking to erase quality in a public space. The respect for social interaction in architecture is destroyed by a stroke of a spraycan.

I do agree with owner solicited or accepted mural work, and even in the tag style if a rendering is provided and quality becomes a prerequisite. But unsolicited graffiti and tagging is a vain and hypocritical gesture for the most part.

[Gannon]

Since it was built, I've never liked the way the Compuware HQ Building looks. And that it hovers over Campus Martius adds to my displeasure. Willi, could you see if Duggan would have that eyesore torn down for me??

True that, and there are legion of interior decorator professionals and architects and historic preservationists who'd like to send Dan Gilbert's design team back to school, or down the river to help his Cleveland holdings confuse and alarm people!

[Willi]

Public space being the key word here - the ordinary people usually get to attend a ""meeting""
of some sort when a property, building, etc gets developed and speak their mind.

Was there a ""meeting"" when that building owner opted for a Variance from the Normal zoning,
toward the Public Space being an art zone ? People can't do whatever they want in public.

Did anyone attend something or is it Vigilante Art - taking the law into their own hands

[canuck]

I have NEVER been shy with my critique of this man, and only backed down when he won that magical write-in campaign because in our representative democracy of human beings...our leaders deserve respect until they prove otherwise. I was clear about my fears of lingering McNamarahood tendencies.

In my defense, though, I've been cooped up in the hospital for a few days...pumped up on steroids and heavy doses of albuteral...and haven't slept but 5 hours since Sunday morning. And the joint had worse food than prison! [[at least that 24-bed county lockup in Wyoming I visited a decade ago)


So...my comments stand until this is cleared up...GSCC is facing those $8000 worth of tickets, and I'd like to see the mayor earn back his capital M by publicly tearing them up on all the news channels. Maybe even find a way to promote the corridor with their amazing mission.

I'm easy to please, but obviously on a hair trigger for errant behavior.

Cheers!

Hey Gannon, you wouldnt have your pin number handy would you? lol

[Gannon]

Whoa...cross platform commentary, hello Facebook friend.

I don't do ATMs, haven't had an account with one in a decade or so.

But I am finally getting in for my long-lusted soak in the tub...gosh I've missed this meditation.

[nain rouge]

Let's face it, the DPD is a joke. I'm sure there are some good people serving there, but as a department it's a joke. No matter what the letter of the law people say, you look silly when you're getting tough on street art while violence and serious crime continues to spin out of control. Even John Oliver took some pot shots at the DPD: http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/arch...-the-caid-raid .

The city is still littered with obvious crack houses, but it's good to know the CAID will never throw a party without all the proper permits.

[hewettbr]

Mayor Duggan lifts fines leveled against Grand River Creative Corridor, apologizes

[maverick1]

To me the important paragraph in that Detroit Muckraker article is:
"Among the unanswered questions is why police are bothering with murals painted with permission when an increasing number of graffiti vandals are targeting occupied and historic buildings, freeway signs, schools, churches, cars, houses, light poles, mailboxes and playground equipment."

My guess is that when the "stop graffiti" edict came down to the police from on high. The local cops over there on the west side went "I know where there's a lot of graffiti!" And not knowing, or perhaps even caring, about the distinction between unsolicited tagging on public and private property, and artwork performed with the permission of the property owner, went off in their usual cop way to pick off the easy low-hanging fruit first.

You have to remember that for the cops themselves it's all about hitting those targets and filling those quotas as quickly and easily as possible. And catching actual vandals in the act is haaaard.

But I'm pretty certain that this is not what Duggan meant. And, as you can see from Spartan Dawg's post above, he already seems to be backing off this pretty hard. After all, the young, the hipsters, and the arty crowd [[including lots of folks out in the neighborhoods) have been part of his overall support group, and he will need their support going forward too, now that he's actually the one in power.

This is true of people in power of dysfunctional institutions in general. They usually are hyper-aggressive and vigilant about irrelevant and low hanging fruit issues. The big problems they're usually apathetic about.