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  1. Calling that graffiti garbage is an insult to garbage.
  2. I fail to see in any sense how that email is "profoundly unprofessional, unproductive and rude." This is real...what's going on in those neighborhoods is real. Graffiti is perceived by many to be the visible symbol of a neighborhood going in the wrong direction! Try to understand that!
  3. Calling these alderman & their assistants "leaders" is an insult to true leaders everywhere. I'd say they're behavior is childish but I'd be insulting grade school children everywhere. Is this the way rational adults are supposed to have discussions? with constituents?
  4. Wow, Witkowiak and his aid have demonstrated absolute unprofessionalism with citizens who live in HIS district. This is a shame, a serious shame.
  5. So it's unprofessional and rude for a public official to express their opinion
    to an "arts advocate" concerning a debate about the arts? Huh.

    Perhaps if you were so concerned about providing at-risk youth a legal
    outlet to express themselves you could talk to your bosses about providing
    some large rolls of blank newspaper for them. Sure would beat seeing
    that garbage-- yes, I said it-- on area buildings.
  6. To all you people who really belive graffitti is art, wait till your house gets tagged! Perhaps taking a suppository would help clear your minds!
  7. "To all you people who really belive graffitti is art, wait till your house gets tagged!"

    ...sigh... Do you people even read these articles? A very clear distinction has been made between "graffitti art" and tagging which is obviously vandalism.
  8. Mary...Alderman Witkowiak withdrew his opposition to the mural only because it was determined that the mural is to be a topical and themed display discernible to a viewer. Not a glorified display of graffiti such as occurred on E. Mineral St. recently. And yes, graffiti is in fact garbage and is viewed as such here. No apologies to the apologists for graffiti.
  9. "And yes, graffiti is in fact garbage and is viewed as such here. No apologies to the apologists for graffiti."

    What is garbage is ignorant people like you, Mike McGuire. Sadly, every month, I have to put aside a little money to pay your salary. As a public employee, I'd recommend a little professionalism!!!
  10. If there were a Master List of constructive strategies for dealing with at risk youth, "Show them incredible disrespect" wouldn't appear anywhere on it.

    Ald. Donovan and McGuire have burned a bridge; they haven't built one. If these politicians can't even work with the softball of kids who desire to do something constructive, how are they're going to resolve the tougher problem with those kids bent on destruction?

    Real leadership is not a childish shout down; real leadership brings the community closer to solutions. And Donovan has failed- with flying divisive colors- to do so.

    By the way; "graffiti" ranges from cancerous, turf claiming, vandalism to works of art celebrated in many collections, galleries, and museums. Trying to pigeon hole it into a definition that supports your particular argument is invariably going to backfire. The boundaries you put on the language to make yourself right will invariably prove you wrong. It's more constructive to deal with specifics. Specifically, there was a legal and approved mural done on private property under the supervision of a non-profit doing its best to channel the creativity of at risk youth. There is also a hideous plague of vandalism in the same neighborhood. Both are graffiti. But the impetus behind the 2 forms is different. Confusing the two led Donovan into condemning those kids doing something constructive, legal, and approved. He couldn't have missed his mark any further.

    Lastly- in a way it is good to see so many investing their time to argue about art. To paraphrase A. O. Scott; any art worth seeing is worth arguing about, and any art worth arguing about is worth seeing. All those votes of argument have definitely made the mural worth seeing and have validated its making.


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