Good or Bad Performance for Cities - Essay Example

In several studies, graffiti was found to have the following advantages to the cities: (1) it revitalizes the city through “controlled graffiti”; (2) it is a form of community beautification by spicing up urban blight and (3) it educates the public through disseminating relevant social issues. On the other hand, graffiti has still been viewed as a form of vandalism and a crime in many societies. The City of Calgary, for example, penalizes those caught doing graffiti with a $5000 fine. It is viewed as a waste of time and resources as the city would eventually resort to cleaning and removing them.

The costs of removing them are tremendous and take a financial toll to the government. The Journal Live news of graffiti report “unwelcome art attacks cost £1m a year MORE than a million pounds is spent every year cleaning up graffiti in the North-East". In addition, prison sentences were handed to members of a gang who work on making graffiti and were found to have destroyed “hundreds of buildings and railway bridges in their distinctive tags over eight months, giving transport operators a huge clean-up bill amounting to £140,000”.

The actions of graffiti artists are evaluated according to their specific objectives or purpose for doing their art form. Most governments have recognized the evolution of graffiti art as continuously transforming. Stowers (1997) averred that “whether or not all of the public agrees that graffiti art is good, bad, or extremely valuable is a different discussion.