FINALLY Went to Eastern Market

[Wheels]

No, I'm not saying you're stupid, I just mean you don't know the particulars of what's going on down there. It's called the Detroit Beautification Project, and it has resulted in dozens of street art works from Hamtramck down to Phil Cooley's new space in Corktown. If people want to offer these artists their walls for this work, it's not graffiti and it's not blight -- it's art. International people are coming here from as far as New Zealand and Australia to paint these works. It's a big deal, and about as far from graffiti as you can get.



Surprisingly, that's not the case. In study after study, the evidence shows that street taggers -- people who do illegal graffiti -- are impressed by these works and do not tag a wall once it gets a treatment from a professional street artist. There are high-profile examples that prove this, from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Wicker Park in Chicago, and locally, in our own Dequindre Cut, or the recent "Welcome to Hamtramck" mural on Joseph Campau near Hamtramck Drive, which hasn't been tagged once since it was put in. It used to be the most-frequently tagged wall in town.



Well, I hope that knowing the facts helps change your mind. Art often provokes strong opinions, so yours wouldn't be the first. Just understand that this is different from someone writing "Wanda sucks it" on a wall.

Your argument is solid and if your data is real I will reserve judgment.

I still don't have to like it!

[Detroitnerd]

Your argument is solid and if your data is real I will reserve judgment.

I still don't have to like it!

Well, yeah. That's the great thing about art: We all get to argue about what it means, its merit, etc.