That’s too bad, looks like nice work. So if your asked and paid out of the city’s art budget it’s a mural but if certain persons don’t like your work although free it’s called graffti? Are not all artist artist

It’s a shame if you ask me. I know a few photographers in the area that love those garages just for the art. Why buy backdrops for senior portraits when you have built-in ones. Now the tagging over the top of the actual graffiti bugs me.

Aren’t those garages slated to be torn down anyway to build the Lorig apartment project?

Wow, another peice of Tacoma soul gone to the coffers. However, I hope someone has a last chance to capture some more photos for the RIP Tacoma yearbook. I’m dissapointed that the art/graffiti/tags/“canned” expression whatever you choose to call it wasn’t considered worth protecting or keeping by any party (public or private). For if it was, I would think there would have been more public opinion gathering of some sort before. Also, I wouldn’t consider the graffiti to be “unartisitc” – even other amateur taggers would leave it unharmed, perhaps in artistic reverence to Plus.

I have a temporary replacement wall if someone knows of a graffiti artist willing to put something on Hilltop. I just love that stuff

The graffiti was great, of course- But don’t you think a graffiti artist also has some understanding of the impermanence of their work? Just like those monks in wherever that make those mandalas and then dismantal them!

“The dismantling process symbolizes the Buddhist belief in the transience of life and the ideal of nonattachment to the material world”

If you look at it like this… this is all very deep.

Hey City Hall, how about doing something REALLY IMPRESSIVE… like get rid of the god damn Clear Channel graffiti clogging my horizon(s)? Why are you clowns picking on the kids?

If Wm Riley contracted people to paint on their walls, then it’s fine. If they didn’t, and people are defacing private property, then that’s illegal. Of course, if Wm Riley doesn’t mind their property being painted on, then they’re free to let it continue.

Its not clear how much of this is driven by the city and how much by Riley.

Riley could certainly follow the model of Embellish if he wanted to. One has the right to paint their wall how they want. The city certainly doesn’t force someone to have blank walls. However, it may be cost efficient to simply paint them over.

He could hire or let some someone paint something like Embellish. One difference between Embellish and Rileys garages look to be that there are tags over alot of the art.

The city squandered an opportunity to take ownership of something really cool. Maybe too many people complained because they didn’t understand what it was all about.

What they should have done was invest in a big ole’ sign that proudly proclaims “Graffiti Garages” and describes the history of them a little. Then whatever complaints are made, at least it is understood that it’s art.

Too late now, anyway. Kind of gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Maybe it was causing people not to eat downtown.

A piece of Tacoma’s hip-hop history has been lost. There have been many artists nationally that have come and blessed those walls with murals. These garages allowed artists to gain knowledge and paint legally.

I know the threat that grafitti has on cities, but they don’t realize the larger opportunities that it poses. Tacoma is losing out on one of the only canvases that changed weekly.

But that won’t stop the artists out there. They will find spots to paint.

Erik:

That’s what I was getting at. I’ll admit, I’ve never seen the garage, and I’m sure the original job was very nice.

But if gangs started defacing the mural with tags, that’s probably where the problem would start. For a drastic example, I’m sure the city wouldn’t look too fondly on Aryan Brotherhood gangs tagging it up with swastikas and the like.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a big fan of graffiti, legal or not. But if private individuals want to offer space up for it, I say more power to them. If you get anything going with that wall, Brotha E, let me know. I’ll be the clueless white guy walking by saying “What’s them squiggly lines all about?”

CONFIRMED:

The garages are going to be torn down anyway to make room for this new apartment building:

http://www.lorig.com/d_727broadway.htm

So regardless of whether covering up the graffiti was a good idea or not, the garages will likely soon be torn down to be replaced by a much more beneficial use of the site. Time to move on.

It seems to me that the city’s time (and $$$) would have been better spent removing the tags plastered ALL over town.

I was refering to what art you could or could not have in your own space. There was concent for nearly all of that work in there. If the case of what is visible then I guess the mural on embellish is next, and then 6th ave.

Very sad.

Aren’t these the buildings that are coming down soon for redevelopment?

It’s too bad the owners didn’t give a little more warning so that the art could be documented.

Apartments may be a good use of the space that is being occupied by the parking garage. I hope Lorig can pull it off. The web site says this project is in the “planning stage”. If any one from Lorig reads this I’d recommend building affordable condos on the site. Do something creative and bold to get some of our young people into owning their housing in the downtown area. I don’t want to hear that 300 bucks a square foot is affordable. I don’t want to hear that a 400 square foot studio is affordable. Be creative, be bold. Our young people don’t need stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops. They need a foothold in the community and the ability to be part of building the community for the future. Lorig, think like raw, mostly unfinished loft space. No more cookie cutter projects. Build up the community and then go in for the killing on the high value condos. Build the place that Violet Vodka can afford and we’ll have the community you can profit off of in the future.

I’m just very sad the art in the garages couldn’t die a natural death in the demolition process. I’m with some of the others commenting here, this just make me ill.

I remember the glory days like it was yesterday. I was living in O-Town and Too Short was peddling tapes from the trunk of his car.

It was over as soon as Hammer dropped the MC from his name and danced for KFC (imagine that! and African-American doing happy dances for fired chicken, too bad he couldn’t have squeezed in a plug for watermelons to complete the stereotype). Then Ice Cube blew his social consciousness cred by pimping for St. Ides Male liquor.

did the “CITY” require this to be painted over? I find that hard to swallow….

Can anyone confirm that this is the “CITYs” fault, or is it simply a private property owner who painted over the walls?

That “art” wouldn’t be an issue if those “artists” would have painted on butcher paper and then applied the “artworks” to the garage walls with wheat paste.

The fact that nearly half our youth do not graduate high school suggest something larger is going on besides not learning the three R’s.

Our youth need more opportunities to get involved in the community in meaningful ways. If we don’t give them a reason to stay, then why should they? And in the meantime, why should they care?

Random idea:
I would like to see a survey done by the school district every few years which asks its high school seniors what their future plans are, what their perceptions of Tacoma are, and if they are going away for college plan on coming back.

Re: post 38
I know usually the city only acts on blight matters after a certain number (3? 5?) of complaints have been made. With gang tags though, they don’t wait for the calls to come in. It wouldn’t surprise me if some complaints were filed though.

“The prices for a condo in downtown Tacoma seem to favor the professional downsizing couple more than any young person. I have this fear that Tacoma will gentrify before it’s ever cool. We’ll see.” Derek of Exit 133

I’d like to see those words on a Beautiful Angle poster, or scrawled on a garage in downtown. I want to see those words on the bus advertising cards and on the billboards. I’m pretty sure that Derek is spot on. A community designed for downsizing professional couples will never be cool.

I drove by the Helm Gallery today and noticed all that art was gone. It makes me so upset at the city. I wrote my thoughts on my blog:

http://aeconomics.blogspot.com/2008/01/toward-theory-of-public-ritual.html

I’m sad.

I am ambivalent about graffiti as an art style or social statement (with its anti-social connotations) but what I really like is the idea that if I have an idea for an “illustration” or feel in the mood for some giant “caligraphy” or don’t have enough canvas for my next “attempt at abstracting the human form to reflect the impact of consumerist ideals on the urban social sphere,” that I now have one less place where it would be accepted, reflected upon, and essentially legitimate…and if that isn’t one long sentence, I don’t what is.