Art Or Crime? T.O. Declares War On Graffiti

Tuesday May 27, 2008

CityNews.ca Staff

It's an age-old question: is graffiti art, or merely colourful vandalism? These days it seems like the Toronto's powers that be are leaning towards the latter.

Toronto business owner Darlene Richards-Loghrin isn't so sure. She commissioned a spray-painted mural on the side of her establishment after years of trying to fight less creative work.

"This is definitely different because it was put here purposely," she says.

And that's the crux of the issue. It seems graffiti, like beauty, is all in the eye of the beholder.

Still, in City Councillor Sandra Bussin's eyes, there's no room for any of it. Bussin and Toronto Police are now enlisting the public's help in their battle against graffiti.

"We don't like this, we don't want this and it doesn't meet our community standard," she said at a meeting Tuesday night.

It turns out her constituents agree, at least for the most part. In Ward 32 Beaches-East York, a study suggested people's top crime concern was what was decorating or defacing their public surfaces.

"It is a crime and it's not victimless," charges Toronto Police officer Rob MacDonald. "Somebody has to spend the time to clean it up or paint it over and it'll cost them not only financially but in their valuable time."

But Richards-Loghrin and those that share her perspective argue the city is failing to make a distinction between art and vandalism.

"Tagging is something that is done in the middle of the night ... it's ugly, it defaces the wall," she explains.

Bussin says it's all or nothing.

"If you allow that one to go forward when other people call in to complain about a similar-looking image, how do you deal with that?" she asks.

At least for right now, Toronto's dealing with it simply by asking people with graffiti they want gone from their neighbourhoods to call Access Toronto at 416.338.0338.