As I walked to work yesterday morning I passed these poor guys, having to clean graffiti off a new glazed-tile wall. This is a good example of the type of graffiti that has no value as far as I can see. I'm all for interesting street art in the appropriate place, but we could all do without bad tagging.
It reminded me of a video I stumbled across on YouTube not too long ago by a guy who seems fixated on the idea that European cities and countries are all going downhill -- a common right-wing, Trumpian narrative. In London, he and his partner wandered around filming every passing police car and homeless person, complaining about dirt, implying that anyone dressed in black on a motorbike is a phone-snatcher, and pointing out a perceived absence of proudly flying Union Jacks. Why I wound up with this video in my feed, I have no idea, but of course it's ridiculous. (He's done a similar video for Lisbon.)
I hesitate to link to his videos and give this guy any more oxygen, but I'll just say that you can walk around filming and exaggerating the ugliest aspects of any city in the world, if you choose to see cities that way. That is not what I see when I walk around London, for the most part. He says someone tried to snatch his phone, which may be true, but in 13 years of living here I've never had that happen, nor do I believe that every guy on a motorbike is a phone thief. (Most of them are food delivery drivers.)
Looking at the photo above, you could say, "Oh, how terrible to have that graffiti problem." Or you could admire the fact that it's being cleaned up.
Do cities have problems? Absolutely. But they always have, going all the way back to Jacob Riis and Jane Addams, and even earlier. Homelessness and poverty and migrants and litter are hardly new phenomena. In fact I'd wager that 100 years ago London was a heck of a lot dirtier than it is now. So yeah, London has changed -- for the better.
I will agree that London has a lot of grotty, unnecessary phone booths that need to be removed. I'm with him on that.
Speaking of litter, I found this on the sidewalk near our school -- an obviously Thanksgiving-themed napkin. It must have come from our school, because Thanksgiving is not a British holiday. I liked the autumnal color scheme!
We only have one more day of school with students, and then a half-day of work tomorrow for so-called professional development before we're off on our Thanksgiving holiday. I mentioned that Dave and I are taking Olga on a little trip -- we're going back to Bray, a village in Berkshire just outside London that we've visited several times. (It's where we stayed in Clamato Cottage. We didn't get Clamato this time, but we're staying in another similar accommodation.)
I'm wondering what it's going to be like getting Olga out there. It's not a long trip and we can take the train, but at her age, just walking to and from the station is going to be quite an outing!
You need to borrow someone's old pram to get Olga to the station and back again. I see lots of old people around Adelaide and the suburbs with little dogs or old dogs in prams going for their daily dose of fresh air.
ReplyDeleteI've seen that too -- in fact with a staffy dog similar to Olga. I don't think she's quite at the pram stage yet, but we'll see how this trip goes!
Delete.Book the old girl a taxi to the station!
ReplyDeleteYeah, we might do that. We'll definitely get a taxi from the Maidenhead station to the cottage, because that's too far even for us to walk.
DeleteIt's a pity about the graffiti. There are some very good anti graffiti products now, as well as some powerful cleaners. I agree with you that it is a sign of a decent city that the graffiti is quickly cleaned away, but I will bet it isn't in all parts of London.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to have a break away from home. It might be too late to get an old pram, but River's idea is quite good.
DeleteToday that wall looks brand new -- they've done a good job using graffiti-resistant materials! There are absolutely areas where graffiti stays for years, though.
DeleteI agree that we should focus on the fact that the graffiti is being cleaned up. We have that ugly tagging around here and it makes me crazy. Still, this is an incredible city. Is it possibly time to get Olga a doggy pram, along the lines of River’s suggestion? Regarding the Thanksgiving napkin, I expected you to say you took it home and framed it.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing a lot of graffiti in Spain. Europe in general has tons of "street art." Some of it should be cleaned up and some not!
DeleteI was just reading an article a few days ago on a particular problem New York City had before vehicles became commonplace. The article mentioned how many tens of thousands of gallons of horse urine and hundreds of thousands of pounds of horse feces were "dropped" onto the streets on a daily basis. There was a shortage of people to remove the problem so there were people whom you could pay to clear a path for you when you had to cross the street. It also said that during wetter times streets were a quagmire and during dryer times, the feces dried to the point of aerosolizing into a fine power that blew through the air and coated everything!
ReplyDeleteI've gotten in the habit of taking every bit of media I consume these days with a large grain of salt. Nearly everyone producing it has an agenda, be it political, revenue generation, revenge, etc.
Yeah, exactly! I think it's hard to appreciate now the level of filth in urban communities back in the day. This is why everyone carried handkerchiefs and wore "traveling suits."
DeleteSo tired of people talking down places. As you say, you can do that with any place. I've cut off Canadian and British relatives years ago whose anti American talk became too much. They became quite panicky at not having me to beat up on, didn't realize there may be consequences, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI occasionally hear anti-American comments but I understand that it must be exhausting for British people to confront the hegemony of American pop culture on a daily basis.
DeleteTagging for the sake of it isn't art..it is just like a dog cocking its leg and peeing against a wall to say I'm here and I'm bigger than you
ReplyDeleteYeah, exactly. Marking territory!
DeleteA quick Google search shows 9 million people live in London. Well, around 8,000 live in Camden where I live and you could probably film dirt and graffiti and alleged phone snatchers here, too. Those videographers focus on the negative and present it as the truth when it's just a piece of the whole story.
ReplyDeleteIn some cases I don't think they're even seeing what they think they're seeing.
DeleteTagging is ugly. Period. There is someone who has started coming to my blog lately (and the England posts) and speaks about how London has become this terrible and unsafe place and England isn't safe because of UK providing long range missiles to Ukraine, so Putin will retaliate and the airport might shut down and people will be trapped. They're "Anonymous," so I've no idea who it is and they sometimes say nice things in the same comment, so it strikes me as someone who has bought into the line. If I could comment back, I'd tell them I'd rather be in England now than here in the US.
ReplyDeleteRant over! Meanwhile, I'm sending all good wishes to you and Dave and Olga for a Happy Thanksgiving and easy travels (and dog walking) on your holiday. It sounds lovely.
Oh, I think I responded to that person's comment at some point. They ARE being ridiculous. A segment of right-wing America is continually being told that Europe is a hellhole, I suppose to reinforce the idea that democratic socialism is a bad thing and unfettered capitalism is THE American way.
DeleteI remember your reply. They're back and even more paranoid. Trouble is, too many Americans never venture out of their own safe spaces. I wish they could see the world we see.
DeleteWell, that's one thing I can say about Lloyd- we may have falling down houses but we don't have graffiti. Okay, the trains that pass through are often tagged.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are going to have so much fun.
Yeah, but you do have your urban problems! That vacant store on the corner? Construction of the GDDG? There's always something, in any community!
DeleteYour getaway sounds like fun. Hope you have good weather and a lovely time, Steve!
ReplyDeleteIt's pouring rain at the moment. I have no idea what the forecast looks like. I guess I should check!
DeleteI love the idea of Olga in a pram - ha!
ReplyDeleteShe WOULD be cute. :)
DeleteI spent a week in Lisbon some years ago and while the bottom floor of buildings were covered in layers of graffiti which it looked like they made no effort to clean up, the city itself was spotless like everywhere I went in Portugal. not one spec of trash on the ground anywhere unlike here where people litter with abandon.
ReplyDeleteYou should watch his Lisbon video if you can stand it. It really is laughable. I also found Lisbon perfectly lovely and in fact some of the graffiti was quite interesting.
DeleteAgreed about the way we look at cities. If all you look for is the messes, that's what you'll find. I choose to look for the clean and friendly and that's usually what I find.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the number of people who are crammed together in most big cities, it's remarkable that they function as well as they do!
DeleteNo graffiti in my rural MA town but some individuals show a sense of entitlement, and it is not attractive. Avoiding these individuals works for me. One hopes it is ideally just a stage - and individuals evolve beyond this thinking.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and some good old R&R.
Thanks for the good wishes! Yes, entitlement is another unattractive problem.
DeleteI like that Thanksgiving napkin! This year our school district gave us this whole week off for the holiday, which was unexpected but nice.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with your way of looking at cities. Some people look for the negative wherever they go.
Wow, a whole week! Lucky you! Enjoy it. :)
DeleteBoth beauty and ugliness can be found everywhere, and sometimes the difference is only in the eyes of the beholder. I try to avoid/ignore negative people. I like the napkin!
ReplyDeleteI do too! I wonder where they bought it? Maybe they brought it over from the states? (Or Amazon, more likely.)
DeleteThat’s Boris !!!!!
ReplyDeleteSorry John -- Blogger would not allow me to respond to this comment earlier! Did you sell Boris's likeness to a napkin-maker? :)
DeleteI hope all three of you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and you too. :)
DeleteHave fun on your mini vacation. I didn't realize that dogs could travel on trains! That's great. I hope Olga does well getting to the station. And like Jennifer said above, some people always focus on the negative.
ReplyDeleteYes, trains are dog-friendly in this country! And Olga likes them. Lots of scenery out that window.
DeleteEnjoy your weekend get away. Fortunately there is little of the nuisance graffiti.
ReplyDeleteLucky you! Graffiti is not part of the culture in some communities.
DeleteIs "professional development" where you tidy stuff up and catch up with yourself? There should be more time for that in schools instead of perpetually jumping on the latest bandwagons.
ReplyDeleteI wish it was only that! No, it's some kind of training session. Argh.
DeleteGraffiti seems to be present in a lot of cities, Rome was one of the worst we have seen. Lower floor walls were often covered.
ReplyDeleteI went to Rome in 2007 and I remember that, too. Also Venice. Lots and lots of graffiti, but some of it quite interesting.
DeleteI agree on the cities getting a bad rap. All towns and cities have their issues and we can choose to focus on that or on the positives. Conservative commenters call Seattle a dump and a cesspool, a dangerous and lawless place yet whenever John and I visit, we have a great time in many beautiful spots in the city. (not that there aren't areas where one should not go)
ReplyDeleteAre there really places in Seattle where you can't go? I think the idea of no-go zones in any city is usually exaggerated. One of my favorite newspaper journalists, Edna Buchanan, who worked for the Miami Herald, wrote that you should never be afraid to go anywhere in your own city -- you should just be prudent while doing so. (Or something like that.) I've been pretty much everywhere in London and am so far unscathed, knock on wood.
Delete3rd and Pine (also Pike) are the notorious ones. Seattle made the idiotic decision to make part of 3rd Avenue transit only which has caused many issues. John and I caught the light rail on 3rd and it was evident that we wanted to walk quickly through there to the station. I wouldn't say that I was scared; it was daytime, but you couldn't pay me to go through there at night.
DeleteTucson has a terrible problem with litter, especially plastic bags and broken glass. There are a fair amount of murals that are not defaced, so apparently they can respect each others' work. I hate the scribble graffiti.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a main reason why some business owners commission murals -- because it eliminates a blank wall that might otherwise attract tags.
DeleteI could take photos of the houses in my neighborhood that need repairs and the people don't care for their lawns and say I live in a horrible place, but the bad spots don't represent the neighborhood. No point in going on about the worst in a city. The graffiti isn't exactly a Banksy, but as you said, at least it's getting cleaned up.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Exactly. It all depends on your focus!
DeleteEnjoy the holiday and your trip.
ReplyDeleteThank you, e!
DeleteHave I been spammed again?
ReplyDeleteI found you!
Delete