Big Slowdown

The fastest walls in the West — the famed public graffiti walls at Venice Beach — just got a lot slower. As of Sunday, June 3^rd, the newly-renamed Venice Public Art Walls will no longer be a free-for-all where pretty much anyone can paint anytime.

From now on, if you want to get up at the walls, you'll need a permit (and a plan, and a couple buddies if you want to get up on the large walls). Works will stay up for a week. No one will be allowed to paint on weekdays.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing to the artists and graff (graffiti) world luminaries we spoke to at the kick-off party for the new wall order. They think people need to show respect for others' work and not just go over it immediately, as had become standard operating procedure at the walls. They think the quality of the work at the walls will improve. They think it's right that artists earn their place on these high-profile walls.

The problem with these positives is that none address the actual reason for the rule change. Area residents are up in arms about rampant tagging in the 'hood and insist it's kids on the way to and from the walls who are doing the bombing. They've pressured local authorities to either fix the situation or tear down the walls. The powers that be have responded by attempting to slow down traffic at the walls and by enforcing the use of permits.

Exactly how decreasing the number of legal graff walls in the area will cut down on people tagging elsewhere is where I see the rub. But that's just me. We went to the graff party that marked the walls' makeover to hear from artists and anyone else who had an opinion. Check out what they had to say.