Quote:
Originally Posted by PHL10
A certain amount of graffiti is expected, especially on abandoned buildings or large blank walls. But some of the graffiti on the fronts of active buildings seem sort of strange to me. Why would some of that not get cleaned up by the building owners?
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From my observations, things are different in the US compared to here. In the US, street art tends to be associated predominantly with crime, gangs and decline and therefore has a strongly negative connotation. Here street art tends to be associated more with creativity, fun, vibrancy, etc. When street art start popping up, it's more a sign of youth, hipsters, and quirky/funky culture so there isn't a knee-jerk reaction against it to the same degree. Certainly there are people who don't like it - either an individual piece, in a specific location, or in general - but people aren't as likely to see it as threatening or as a maintenance issue. In this case, proprietors of buildings/nabes that aren't posh/corporate and/or that cater to the types of people that street art is associated with are in no rush to remove it. In fact it probably gives a business a sort of street cred, like "Hey, we're cool, laid-back and creative like you! We're not uptight corporate-types like some business owners!"