Others, however have tried to give graffiti a legitimate place in the art world and say it adds to the area's culture and is misunderstood.

"Vandalism is the issue, not graffiti," says artist Bob Hansman, who worked with Paint Louis as it turned the city's flood wall into a graffiti mural in the late 1990s.

Not the city's preferred symbols

Photos by Rachel Heidenry | The Beacon

Taggers have found the "welcome mat" St. Louis has put out along Delmar.

Whether the graffiti is done by gangs or taggers out to make their marks, it's the vandalism --or the damage to the property and its value -- that concerns Mary Lou Green, director of Operation Brightside.The Brightside crews have been already called out to clean graffiti, or tagging, more than 2,000 times from the start of this year through the end of May. Brightside, the regional nonprofit that handles the bulk of the area's clean-up, expects about 5,000 calls this year.

Tagging is on the increase. In 2007, a total of 2,582 graffiti complaints were lodged with St. Louis' Citizens Service Bureau, which forwards them to Brightside. That was up from 2006 by 337 complaints. Over 15 years, Brightside has spent about $3 million to clean-up painted marks.

This year has already hit the total mark set last year, according to Green.

The Missouri Department of Transportation and St. Louis city departments such as streets and refuse also handle calls. According to Sandra Hentges, outreach coordinator with MODOT, St. Louis is among the state's top graffiti hotspots.

"That's the sad part, there is a steady stream," Green says. "This is thousands and thousands of dollars of damage that these vandals are causing." In some situations, Brightside crews can't get to graffiti because it has been left in a location that's too dangerous for a crew to reach.

Crews either paint over the damage or, sometimes, must undertake more labor-intensive cleaning methods. If the damage is on private property, the organization mails a consent form to its owner. While the final responsibility for clean-up rests with a property's owner, Brightside can clean up tags in the interest of public safety.

"It's not fair to the other property owners and residents in that community to see that every day," Green said.

An anti-graffiti bill sponsored by 16th Ward Alderwoman Donna Baringer went before the Board of Aldermen Thursday for final reading. The bill would prohibit retailers from selling spray paint to anyone under the age of 18 without a parent or guardian present. It would repeal an ordinance that's not been enforced that made it illegal to sell spray paint to children. The bill would also require stores to post signs about the ordinance, to take IDs with spray paint sales and to keep records of sales. Businesses could be fined for violations and the fines would go to Operation Brightside to pay for graffiti removal.

Twenty-three aldermen approved the bill's wording, which allows it to move for a final vote.

Other cities have been more receptive to graffiti. Cities like Seattle and New York have active graffiti art movements. Artists like Keith Haring  were known for graffiti artwork.

A place for graffiti

The legacy of Paint Louis remains on the flood wall.

The artistic graffiti movement got its high-water mark in St. Louis in the late 1990s. Called Paint Louis, the group gained permission, with the help of the Regional Arts Council, to spray paint murals on the city's flood wall. After controversy and stops and starts, Paint Louis painted its last in 2000.

An incident during the Paint Louis project brings home the ironies of the graffiti situation for Hansman. One night, after the artists had packed up, paint was thrown on the day's murals. It struck him as funny that someone would vandalize what may consider vandalism.

"I thought it was a delicious irony," he says.

Hansman was among those "writing on the wall." In his view, graffiti gets an unfair rap.

"The thing that vexes me about the whole conversation is vandalism is vandalism," Hansman said. "It can take the form of graffiti or it can take many other forms. Graffiti is graffiti. It can take the form of vandalism or it can take the form of art or something else."

One key difference between the graffiti that upsets people and the kind lauded by art critics, Hansman said, comes down to where it is and whether the person responsible had permission to do it.

Hansman says those who were part of the Paint Louis project also brought people to an area of the city that is little trafficked. "It was where you dumped the bodies," Hansman says. "It became an active part of the city and all that was thanks to the graffiti writers."

There have been some discussions, according to Hansman, of erecting public walls to allow graffiti artists to make their marks. These have been informal and no plans for them have yet been made. One shortcoming of such an idea would be that there is no guarantee that it would limit the vandalism of tagging.

Hansman, though, says it is something to explore.

"Nothing in the public realm is without risk," he said. "I mean, you have Strassenfest and street festivals and people pee in the street ... Some would say then we shouldn't have street festivals. They've always taken the draconian approach. Not, 'let's make this work,' but 'how do we make this go away.'"