The semester is over and we have a great publication to show for it. Download a PDF of “Designing Education :: Spring 2007.” The book includes essays by each graduate student in the class, quotations from all of our readings and individual student portfolio pages for DICE participants.

Two days ago, I was walking on 7th avenue in Park Slope, and close to Flatbush Avenue, I saw this van and a few guys with painter outfits coming out of it. The Van said “Graffiti Free NYC” and was owned by NYC Economic Development Cooperation. Then I went online to do a research on what this was all about, because I had never seen such a thing. Here is what I found:

Graffiti Removal Program (Mayor’s Community Assistance Unit/NYC Economic Development Corporation)
The Graffiti Free NYC Program was initially created in 1999 to address the overwhelming number of properties vandalized by graffiti. The program is a street-by-street graffiti removal service offered free to business and residents in all five boroughs. To date, the program has cleaned more than 150 million square feet of surface area. The initiative provides renewed sense of public safety, higher property values, a stronger municipal tax base, and increased civic pride. Currently, the program consists of 25 work crew members and a fleet of 13 graffiti removal vehicles. The vehicles are equipped with unique equipment which enables operators to remove graffiti by painting and/or power-washing over 20,000 square feet of graffiti surface area, per day, per vehicle. All vehicle operators are hired from inner city programs such as the Doe Fund and Project Renewal that create jobs for low-to-moderate income residents. In response to the high volume of graffiti removal requests received through the City’s 311 hotline, the program was expanded in 2005 with support from the Mayor’s Fund to provide nighttime services. More recently, the Fund granted additional funds to expand these services from 2 to 4 nights per week commencing July 2006.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/fund/html/projects/quality_of_life.shtml

I was shocked to know such a thing existed. So much money and attention spent on the graffiti art. It is, of course, no surprise to know that there is no such program called “Street Art Free NYC”, right?

Also take a look at this website for more detailed information:

http://www.nycedc.com/Web/RealEstate/AssetManagement/QualityOfLifePrograms/GraffitiFreeProgram.htm 

Here is the Absolute advertisement Shepherd Fairey was talking about: