An Art Question......

.....during the period the "community organizations" were tranforming the face of Toronto how many of these "taggers" were caught, charged and convicted? How many of them took part in cleaning up their handiwork? No money to keep pools open, there are still 1 in 5 kids who don't play organized sports because of lack of funding, seniors still have to shop at the "day old" rack, etc. etc. but artistes prevail.

City OKs turning graffiti into art

One man's graffiti will become one community's art.

Who spray-painted message on TTC wall? TheStar.com - GTA - Who spray-painted message on TTC wall?

May 12, 2008

Jack Lakey
Staff Reporter

When a scrawl on the wall of a TTC station takes an official tone, is it a sign to be respected or is it graffiti?

That's the question Matt Livingstone has been pondering since he noticed a spray-painted "do not enter!" notice in large orange letters on the east wall of the St. Clair station at Yonge St.

Streetcars come and go at this station in mid-block, by way of tracks that curl southerly off St. Clair Ave., just east of Yonge St. The opening is for streetcars only; the TTC has two yellow "no entry" signs there, lest someone walking past gets the idea to use this side door to sneak into the station without paying.

A few months ago, Livingstone says he noticed the same warning (but with an exclamation point!) had been spray-painted between the two official signs, and figured it was the TTC's ham-handed way of emphasizing the point.

TTC staff do sometimes use handwritten signs to inform riders that a door or escalator is out of service, for instance, which invokes the ire of people who rightly believe important signage should be slick and professional, like the ones used by GO Transit.

But the massive spray-painting at St. Clair is worse than any hand-lettered TTC signs he's seen, said Livingstone, adding "surely it goes against the city's graffiti bylaws.

"How can the TTC demand that riders respect its property, when the TTC itself cannot demonstrate the same thing?"

STATUS: Danny Nicholson, who deals with media for the TTC, looked into this and called back to say the sign was not painted on the wall by any TTC workers – at least not officially or in a way that led to a record being made of it.

The two official signs are enough to tell pedestrians to keep out, said Nicholson, adding the extra warning will be removed from the wall right away.