Does Legal Art Lead To Illegal Graffiti?


Legal graffiti can lead to illegal problems.


It often seems that graffiti is an eyesore in the communities in which it persists, but sometimes, at places such as Fun Factory in Long Island City, graffiti is actually a sanctioned art form.

The Fun Factory, a pseudo warehouse studio space rented to artists in Long Island City, is a building covered completely by graffiti art. Most of the art, as is customary with graffiti, is tagged by the artists who’ve created it. The only problem with this is that these tags also appear throughout other sections of Western Queens where the unsanctioned graffiti appears not as art, but as vandalism.

Sunnyside resident Melissa Diaz wrote the Action Desk to tackle this very problem, saying that by allowing the taggers to work on the building, the owner of the Fun Factory is encouraging the graffiti on private property throughout the area.

“This building is attracting illegal activity in the community and it’s not fair to the residents that have become victims of graffiti vandalism,” Diaz wrote. “Vandals are coming to see the graffiti art on Fun Factory and tagging on their way home.”

A police source who works closely with this very problem confirmed Diaz’s allegation, but added that the Fun Factory is private property and thereby not in violation of any of the mayor’s anti-graffiti laws. He did, however, see a very plausible, working method through which residents can combat the problem.

“Graffiti vandalism, not graffiti art, is about name recognition,” the police source said. “The police department is adamant that property owners report [graffiti] right away or just clean it. If it’s gone within 24 hours, the vandals won’t want to tag there; it’s not worth their effort.”

The police source confirmed that the Fun Factory area is constantly monitored for vandals.