Shame on so much graffiti

[Josep Gisbert, periodista]

FEvery day it is more sad and more shameful to walk the streets of Sabadell and see the graffiti that defaces the walls, facades, doors, windows, shutters, private and public buildings and urban furniture in general. Whether in the center or in any of the neighborhoods, the plague is spreading everywhere. The worst part of the case is that there seems to be no stopping it, because despite the good words of the municipal government team and the commitment to tighten the penalties for the perpetrators of this nonsense, the reality is that in the end it has become more widespread, if possible.

Some are in the abandoned old post office building, in what remains of Artèxtil, in Cal Balsach, in the dilapidated Sant Pau de Riu-sec farmhouse, on plastered walls, on exposed brick facades, on wooden doors, on plastic windows, on metal shutters, on concrete fences. It doesn’t matter whether they are registered and protected properties or not, whether they are new or old, whether they are used or abandoned. The feeling is growing that those who do it enjoy complete impunity, because nowhere does the supposed pressure from the authorities seem to be of any use. If the fines increase and the phenomenon persists, it means that the value of the penalties is still too low and it would be appropriate to increase them even more. The graffiti writers should also be forced to clean up their graffiti, as part of the penalty, so that they realize that the damage they are causing is difficult to reverse. Don’t let the city council suffer for its harsh actions because it will have the support of the majority of the inhabitants of Sabadell, who consider that graffiti on the streets is precisely one of the main challenges facing the city in terms of improving public space. In all cases, it is urgent to intervene and find a solution to stop the escalation of these destructive practices before it is too late.

Graffiti, a scribble that has no liberation and no return, if you don’t act quickly, summons another and another and another, and the spread is a symptom and a synonym for the deterioration that cities suffer from. If the problem becomes entrenched, and in some places in Sabadell it seems that it has already done so, finding a remedy becomes more complicated, and the situation can become, depending on how it happens, irreparable. The damage tends to be worse in historic centres, where deterioration leads to depopulation and depopulation leads to deterioration of space, and the whole thing becomes a fish biting its tail with no easy stop.

Some of those who can help change this dynamic are graffiti artists and representatives of urban art, fortunately there are quite a few of them in Sabadell and in some cases they have works not only in the city, but also abroad, of high quality and even international prestige. They should all be able to denounce the group that dedicates itself to polluting the walls that they cherish, the doors that they beautify, the spaces that they ultimately try to protect from these irresponsible and uncivil behaviors that say a lot and little. Those who practice them, but also those who tolerate them. And here there must be a clear will on the part of those who play to separate one thing from the other.

The vision of a clean and orderly city seems more complicated in the Mediterranean countries, and you have to go to northern Europe to find it. Athens may be an example of how the cradle of a civilization that once conquered the world has been degraded by these practices that in many places have dominated the mood of urban centers. The same thing happens in Naples, not to mention Barcelona. At the other extreme, Oslo – and Norway in general – could be an example of the exact opposite, of cleanliness and order, of a society in which those in charge do not, in fact, throw a single piece of paper on the floor.