Chile Forum

I had new gates built for the house this year, I guess the new white paint was too tempting and they got tagged by some scumbag with a spraycan. I've just paid a lot of money to have persianas (roll up shutters) installed to protect the windows and have no reason to believe that they will be treated with any additional respect. In asking the manufacturer about graffiti prevention/removal, they have no answers as the paint has a good bonding agent to the powder coating.
I had the idea to coat the outside surface with synthetic motor oil to deny the raw surface to the taggers and we have done this. A neighbour 3 doors away has a persiana that was tagged, permanently. I'd post the pic but don't know how.
In any event, I didn't know that in addition to the difficulties of finding good construction help here I'd be trying to outfox vandals. I'm thinking that the mosquito device along with a motion sensor will probably be the best investment I can make until I'm in Chile full time and get a dog.
And as for the "art" aspect, if it's been requested, fine but otherwise it's vandalism and should carry a mandatory 6 months on a cleanup crew and a big fine. We'll see how much disposable income they want to use on spray paint after that.

Need a few heads on pikes, metaphorically speaking. Examples made of a few miscreants, wide coverage of their embarrassing punishments on TV, etc. Part of the answer would be parents or guardians having to pay the city for clean up for their 'artist' children. Garnish a few of Pop's paychecks and see how juniors life becomes a living hell at home. Mom and Pop can't afford it? OK, first offense Junior spends 10 hours a day the next 30 days cleaning up graffiti around the city as part of a crew in orange jumpsuits supervised by cops. Progressively more harsh punishments for repeat offenders, that will quickly separate out the bored kids from the hardcore graffiti idiot types. The bored kids will at some point get a clue and stop. The hard core will get an early intro to the penal system.

Also need a special detail to combat it. I think all new cops fresh out of cop school should spend six months or a year working anti-graffiti as a first assignment. I know that right now there is probably little to zero actual anti-graffiti programs going on. Just a matter of making it a higher priority, having to will to do it and applying pressure where its needed. It's a quality of life issue. But if it doesn't bother people enough to do anything about it......

MikieO and Chuck are calling for...more regulation?

I'm all for anyone who "commissions" some street art on their property, or having graffiti artists do some public places. I saw some amazing graffiti art in Santiago. But as other folks here point out, it's out of control and people who spend time and money on their homes don't appreciate some wild cartoon graffiti on their nice porticos and security shutters. And like I said, no one would ever give a pass to painting graffiti on cars...

MikeO...good idea for combating tagging. We have spray paint in Futaleufu, but any kid who got caught doing that would do the freaking WALK OF SHAME, right along with their parents. The goofy kid who got drunk at the rodeo and stole stuff from our truck were SHAMED by the community. It was worse than waiting for the court date...at which I might add that the judge asked Greg if we had any manual labour we would like the kid to do as punishment in addition to any restitution (there was none because the carabineros got it all back). Horribly embarrassing for the kid, and the family. In the end, small town that it is, Greg said an apology would be sufficient.

Laura55llc wrote:MikieO and Chuck are calling for...more regulation?

I totally missed that Laura!

So long as the installation of a device such as I propose doesn't attract regulation, no problem. But if it does, it might appear that the freedom to vandalize is more important than the protection of one's property. That, I have a problem with. Up in an Algarrobo condominio there's little to no tagging, down on the beach, things are different.
Come to think of it, if there was a bit of publicity drawn to the problem by installation of a few of these devices, maybe more would be done to combat it.
Vicious cycle I know but at the root is lack of respect for private or public property IMO of course .

MikieO wrote:And as for the "art" aspect, if it's been requested, fine but otherwise it's vandalism and should carry a mandatory 6 months on a cleanup crew and a big fine. We'll see how much disposable income they want to use on spray paint after that.

Hey, not sayin' you're wrong...just saying that would require regulation. Denver, Colorado had a serious grafitti problem years ago and made laws saying it was mandatory for the homeowner to paint over the grafitti within a certain(don't remember) period of time-or the city will and the homeowner gets charged. It's impossible to catch all the taggers. They also added big fines when they did catch them. I would guess some of the seemingly lax attitude toward grafitti is Chileans don't really want the regulations. It will happen first in Santiago where they take the seat belt laws seriously.

I think the grafitti is one reason you see the iron bars and gates in town. They're not easily tagged.

Laura55llc wrote:MikieO and Chuck are calling for...more regulation?

Hmmm, seemingly contradicts my libertarian leanings, eh? Good point. But I wouldn't call it more regulation. In my scenario I'd call it well established, well known penalties for certain anti-social behaviors. If you do this.... this happens, every time. The current response/solution to graffiti is obviously not working. so, IMO, a better program is needed. In my last sentence of my previous post I say if people don't want to do anything about it, nothing will be done. Waiting for the Govt. to do something is apathetic. If an anti-graffiti program comes from the Govt. if may not be quite what people want, so citizen involvement should be a big part of it. In fact citizen involvement should the motivating part in it. In other words, if the people lead the government will follow.

I think the graffiti is one reason you see the iron bars and gates in town. They're not easily tagged.

I agree, one of the reasons why I'm encouraging my gardener to get the stone walls covered in ivy. Taggers don't want to "waste" paint on something that'll be gone in a week.
Chuck, Laura's "more regulation" statement made me think too.
The fact that I detest the surveillance cameras in London yet I will probably put a few up at the house to go with the noise device....a dilemma to be sure.
I just feel that the taggers are forcing these measures.

Chuck J 3.0 wrote: In other words, if the people lead the government will follow.

I like that, alot. Ordinary people have almost always found better solutions than government lackeys. Now, IF govt. Lackeys actually represented their constituency, then that would be a different thing, but it rarely ever happens. Real communities and community organizing usually create the best solutions. Just never seems to stay pure though, and people get elected and learn parlimentary proceedings and it all goes to hell in a hand basket! It's hard to keep it real with big media and advertising bombarment 24-7. John Prine says:

Blow up your T.V. throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try an find Jesus on your own

p.s. Ivy or other vines...a great idea.

If only people would lead...Bill Maher had a funny opinion article the other day about California. The geniuses there decided some years back that the people would vote for everything, make it a real people's democracy but then the people vote "yes" on spending for anything and "no" on taxes.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la- ... 4770.story

There's always a tradeoff-Eisenhower was largely responsible for the US Interstate Highway system and FDR(I believe) started the ball rolling. I'm sure that was controversial at the time(and could never have been done without federal funds) but I love the highway system in the US.

The stray dog problem is a dilemma too. If they created a Chilean dog pound, no doubt many Chileans would be upset when their pet(that they let run free, almost always without collars or tags) would have to be bailed out at the pound. And it would be creating a bureaucracy.