[stitifier @ May 31st 2007 12:48PM]

"stiffler- Wrong. I used to do graffiti and education, family income and everything else that you mentioned did not apply to myself along with many of my friends."

So, just because you were a slightly better-off and better-educated scofflaw dickwad means that I'm wrong? Certainly, there's no controlling for sheer all-out dickwad-ness, which no doubt abounds in suburbia, and certainly in Florida, but I would argue-- and I think most would agree-- that urban crime like graffiti largely occurs in (get this!) urban areas. Urban areas that are, largely, poorer, uneducated, and otherwise deprived of the social resources you enjoyed but apparently ignored.

"One solution that was successfully employed down there was they coated many surfaces with an oily substance. Markers simply beaded up and spray paint would wipe off. They also used many other tactics and eventually most grow up."

The problem is, Rick, that other prepubescent dickwads grow up to become teenage dickwads who then take the place of the post-pubescent dickwads, who themselves have discovered that graffiti, while a gratifying form of urban art, doesn't pay very well, and the grants are hard to come by.

"Big cities with bustling down towns might still face the issue, I'm just surprised it's still an issue because with game consoles, internet, cell phones, cars, etc, there is just so many more entertaining things to do and vent with."

Because, genius, it's because those "big bustling down towns" in those big cities are filled with-- get this-- poor people with no education and no options. So they join gangs and deal drugs and learn to survive in the only ways they know how. It may shock you to realize that graffiti is connected with this brand of crime. Surely by addressing the root causes of this crime would be productive, no? Or should we just hope the drug dealers and their buddies just "grow out of it?"

[Rick Lyon @ May 31st 2007 1:13PM]

Well, I guess dickwads such as yourself have never been out to Miami suburbs,. which by the way, is 90% of what makes up Miami. NY has a downtown where people live, Miami, Orlando and other cities don't. Which, dickwad, means most of the city's populations comes from, get this dickwad, the suburbs!

As far as the aspiring artists who blossom from such art, you are again, wrong. I, myself, am a successful web designer/ graphics designer and illustrator. So, the graffiti was merely a step in my artistic development as well as my maturation. Though, I would not to expect such a immature post-pubescent dickwad to understand that there are a ton of cities in which suburbs, rural country has good, bad, rich, poor, educated and uneducated mixed together.

So genius, only poor people or those with no education graffiti? Again, your ignorance glaringly displays that you have never traveled beyond the boundaries of your current city. Miami is not NY, or Baltimore or Philly, which may back up your experience, but I'm not speaking about those cities. I speak from my experience.

It does not shock me that graffiti is connected to crime or gangs, as I was associated to one. Duh, I thought I mostly spelled that out previously. And yes, I got out of it, duh. And a few of my drug dealing friends did as well. We grow up. We get jobs, we move out of the house, because we don't live in buildings downtown, we live in the suburbs which is what primarily comprise Miami and Homestead and surround south Florida areas.

So you may continue to speak on your research into NY graffiti and I will continue to speak from experience growing up in Miami.