| | |  News from Around Banderas Bay | July 2008 
Tag, You're It!
 William Michael - PVNN
| | Examples of modern graffiti styles. (wikipedia.org) | | |
Puerto Vallarta - Graffiti is a growing epidemic and it is hitting our wallets! When we turn off our tourists with unsightly disrespectful tagging on walls, sidewalks, etc., we turn off our income. That fact makes it a personal affront.
According to the dictionary, Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is sometimes regarded as a form of art and other times regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted vandalism.
As for an art form, this is true, and hanging in an art gallery can be interesting and profitable. When that art form is placed on property without the permission of the property owner or responsible party then the art becomes vandalism.
The history of Graffiti is fascinating but not germane to this article. I invite you to visit Wikipedia.com to learn more.
A posse of Puerto Vallarta Realtors has come together to work on the problem of tourist-bothering graffiti. The group is headed by Marilyn Newman, (Pancho's Villas Real Estate). The members are William Michael (Timothy Fuller & Associates), Josie Gonzalez (Tropicasa Realty), Gary Lambert (Zamilpa Realtors), Salvador Zuniga (Blue Oceanside Realty) and Rocio Nava, (RealEstate Vallarta & Beyond).
After numerous meetings, the Posse realized that their prime directive is to discern what organizations are currently in place and disseminate that information to as many people as possible.
Lic. Joel Omar Mendoza, Ayuntamiento, Encargado de Programas Preventivos, heads up programs aimed at intervention in the schools and identifying and working with young people who might be involved in various activities resulting in crimes or offenses in and around the community.
Currently the laws on graffiti are such that anyone caught in the act of defacing private or public property can be detained for a period of 36 hours, fined $1200 pesos and made to clean or remove the graffiti.
The difficult part is that, unless the person is caught in the act, or the property owner files a complaint with the police, there is nothing which can be done - even if the police can identify the graffiti as the work of a specific person.
Kim Melendez from the Instituto de la Joventud, heads a city sponsored program formed to give young people the opportunity to work with and express their art form in socially acceptable venues. Interests range from Hip Hop and break dancing to Rap and Graffiti artists.
They are currently working on an event to be held at Plaza Caracol on July 23, 24 and 25, called "VallArte Urbanos", which will include a graffiti competition culminating in 10 finalists, who will then have their work displayed at various locations around the city. Of course, Kim and his fellow organizers are looking for sponsors for their event.
 Born in Denver, CO, William Michael has called Puerto Vallarta home for more than six years. Drawing on his twenty years experience in Real Estate, William Michael is a Broker-Associate at Timothy Fuller and Associates where he has consistently been a Top Producer. You can contact him at WilliamMichael(at)TimothyFuller.com. |
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