Is it Art or Vandalism?
Skateboarders and neighbors struggle to coexist and seek solutions as spray paint and etchings often show up at new hot spot in Logan Square, Chicago
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune reporter
April 22, 2009
When taggers hit the rails, benches, and wooden ramps of the city’s first covered
skate park, skateboarders considered it a christening of sorts because they say
the two cultures go hand in hand. But for neighborhood residents—many owners of
stately mansions lining Logan Boulevard—the graffiti was too urban and a
troubling step back for a community that has shed much of its gritty roots. The
Graffiti showed up in March before the park, just under the Kennedy Expressway,
had officially opened. The first day was April 3.”We stopped counting after 600
Tags,” said Larry Ligas, chairman of the Logan Square Concerned Citizens group.
“We heard that a few of the taggers put the word out in the underground, and the
Taggers felt there was a competition out there of which crew could outdo the
other.” The neighborhood group sent e-mails to police and taped up warning signs
in the park. Members organized a citizens’ patrol, groomed young skateboarders
as lookouts and called city and state officials, who dispatched workers to paint
over much of the illegal handiwork. Some see all that as an overreaction and
suppression of a harmless culture. Ligas, who called the artists “bona-fide
criminals,” wants to paint the underside of the expressway sky blue and turn
some of the pillars into trees, making the setting more serene. That’s not the
image skateboarders are after.” Tagging in a skate park makes it look cooler,”
said Scott Conroy, 26, who live in Logan Square. “I think tagging has a place
in the skateboarding culture. The only people I see complaining about it are
squares and parents.”Ald. Rey Colon (35th) said he understands residents’
concerns, but also thinks skateboarders should have a voice.” The skateboarders
are creating an environment that they think is suitable for the activity that
they’re doing,” Colon said. “They need a fo realized venue for having public art
or graffiti art at that location, which happens to be against the backdrop of a
tree-lined boulevard and historic mansions. We have to find a way so they can
coexist.” The idea for a skateboard park under an unused portion of the Kennedy
appeared in the 2004 Logan Square Open Space Plan, which called the neighborhood
one of the most park-deprived in the city. At the time, community activists
figured carving a park out of an unused portion of the neighborhood was a good
use of limited open space. They also thought it would help deal with pesky
skateboarders who were riding the marble steps up to Logan Square’s Centennial
Monument. The Park District spent more than $600,000 to build the park—opting for
modular obstacles that can be moved should Illinois Department of Transportation
crews need to do work under the highway. Taggers used etching acid on pillars
more than 7 feet tall, Ligas said, adding that he also saw anti-church stickers
and vulgar graffiti. Worried that nearby residents would call for an end to the
park, Ligas organized volunteers to patrol it. He started sending daily messages
from his BlackBerry to the 14th District police commander. There are now hourly
police patrols.He even persuaded a team of skateboarders to become “leaders” and
monitor the park themselves.In a recent instance, a group of skateboarders
managed to circle a would-be tagger and called police. A 16-ye ar-old was
arrested and charged with having spray paint.
Community activist Mark Heller, who says he approached the Chicago Park Districtwith the idea for the park, calls
Ligas’ concerns overblown.”This is an amazing positive activity for youth of all
ages. This skate park has nothing to do with crime and gangs,” he said, adding
that the way to deal with graffiti is to get artists to do high-end graffiti in
the park.”Public art enlivens the space and prevents tagging,” Heller said.
Police District Cmdr.
Alex Diaz, 40, whose 11-year-old son skateboards at the park, thinks the
graffiti is a problem.”It was a nice park. Why ruin it?” said Diaz, who said he
saw graffiti everywhere growing up in Humboldt Park. But he also saw the windows
of his church in Logan Square destroyed with etching acid.”I don’t understand
the tagging. It’s just some random name on a wall,” he said. “You can make out a
letter or two, but you can’t read it.”Brenda Gutierrez, 35, whose son was
learning how to skateboard at the park recently, sees it differently.”It looks
so ugly now,” she said.
Skateboarder Tim Pool, 23, of Lakeview was recruited by Ligas to monitor the
park. True skateboarders are against the tagging because it can lead to
authorities closing parks down—either temporarily for cleanup or permanently, he
said. The quality matters, too, he said.”Really good tags have shading and
color. This is a guy with markers making a sloppy mess all over a ramp,” Pool
said, suggesting a wall for graffiti should be erected in the park.
Mayor Daley’s Graffiti Blasters
Graffiti is vandalism, it scars the community, hurts property values and diminishes our quality of life.
Started by Mayor Daley in 1993, Graffiti Blasters stepped up the battle against graffiti by offering a free removal service to private property owners. The Department of Streets & Sanitation’s crews remove this vandalism with “blast” trucks or paint crews.
Graffiti Blasters employs 13 “blast” trucks that use baking soda under high water pressure to erase painted graffiti from brick, stone and other mineral surfaces. They also use 14 paint trucks to cover graffiti on the remaining surfaces.
This year, “Graffiti Blasters” is celebrating its 15h anniversary and has cleaned more than 1.6 million instances of graffiti vandalism. It has become one of the most popular municipal services offered by the City of Chicago, and a role model for other cities.
As with the City’s many anti-crime and beautification programs, we depend on community groups, block clubs, chambers of commerce and individual residents to reach out to us for this invaluable service. If a cleaned building is struck again, we make every effort to return and remove the new graffiti quickly.
The Department of Street & Sanitation also works very closely with the Chicago Police Department to apprehend graffiti vandals in the act of defacing property. Parents or guardians may be liable for monetary damages, if a minor in the same household commits any type of vandalism, including graffiti.
No community in Chicago has to tolerate graffiti. Please join us in eliminating graffiti and making this an even more beautiful city.
To report graffiti or request its removal, call the city’s service request line at 3-1-1.
