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When graffiti was chairman of the TA


St Louis Car 09

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I felt like I had to start this one.Throughout the 70s and 80s (NYCT) was suffering through the biggest crisis it may ever face.Not only was infrastructue and equipment was falling apart,as well as high cime numbers,but Graffiti was dominant.although Subway graffiti is gone(with the exception of a few tags and scratchitti) give me some insightful stories about your experience riding the (NYCT) during the 70s to late 80s,Some of the best graffiti you`ve seen and Your thoughts of it ever happening again.Warning! If you were a tagger then or now,keep those stories to yourself,their are some loyal transit fans on this site,not to mention cops.So keep it cool and enjoy the thread:).

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I have many memories of grafitti covered trains during 1984 and 1985 years even though i was small i do remember the splattered grafitti covered R32 cars,before rebuilding.The not so Brightliners were an eyesore at the time as well as many of the older LAHT cars of the time R26,R27,R28,R30,R33 and R36's were all targets.Picture the powder blue bench like seating covered with grafitti tags,interior and exterior windows were dirty and barely visible,the old orange interior and exterior blue doors barely working as one door opened while the other was stuck and the ever popular blinking lights effect.I always lived near the (N) Sea Beach Line and grafitti was present everywhere from station walls,benches,turnstiles and station houses and it was the norm in my neighborhood as well as in many at the time.Gangs were still present but were dying out by 1985 and afterwards.It seems the (N) Sea Beach Line is still frozen in time when it comes to grafitti artwork on the walls although much of the work has been fading already.I was at Prospect Park Station last week and to my amazement an out of service 8 car set of R68's passed through and 2 of its cars were tagged and no amateur did it either folks.

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Don't get me wrong I appreciate the trains now, being clean and grafitti clean but I love some of the tags from back then. I clearly remember, REVS, Soup, Cope, Zane, Smith, 187, and Cost. There were many burners (Tags that take up a whole side of a car) that I really liked but they were really becoming out of hand. One couldn't see out of the window with all those tags inside out. Also, I loved the blackouts in the R32s back during the Graffitti days but I was a kid so I thought it was cool. I was just an admirer of the art. Never really could draw let alone graff. I did walk many tunnels back in the day to admire some of the work others had done.

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The (NYCT) was like a big art gallery back then,but hey Ther was no myspace and face book to network.Kids spoke through the tags and messages. Imagine risking your life for the ultimate Burner or lay-up,the risk of electrocution from the third rail,The roar of 60 ton trains and of course the cops.All sound like good times.

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Yea, that was the one, I never bought it since it was too expensive
But it has a lot of cool pics:) I can only imagine what type of hell shop personel had to go through with the vandalized cars. Honestly the dumbest thing (NYCT) did was paint the trains white.Of course kids are going to see this as a moving canvas.
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But it has a lot of cool pics:) I can only imagine what type of hell shop personel had to go through with the vandalized cars. Honestly the dumbest thing (NYCT) did was paint the trains white.Of course kids are going to see this as a moving canvas.

 

They painted the trains white on purpose: to track down what lines were being vandalized the worst.

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Hey Matt...why are you holding a spray can behind your back there? o_o;;

 

Are you kidding, Stan? I'll never bring a paint spray can in the subway system nor bus.

 

Believe it or not, it's still a problem today, I saw that Avenue J overpass tagged recently and one of the cleaners said to me a week ago "If I catch those bums, I'll spray their faces and have them arrested, red-handed!"

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I kind of miss the old days of graffiti, when it had purpose and meaning, rather than people just scribbling their names somewhere. The art used to be really beautiful.

 

Put it on a canvas if you want. Not on public property. Vandalism regardless if it's "pretty" or "artistic" is still vandalism.

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I was born in 1987, so I don't remember much about the graffiti then. However, I still see graffiti on many subway stations, like the Prospect Park station. The "artwork" makes me feel very uncomfortable and doesn't invite an anti-graffiti person like myself. There's still a problem with the annoying tagging, but cops respond quickly.

 

A little story. I took part of a Type II class last semester that took a class trip. The professor took his class the day before on the same. Well, while at the Times Square station, his class before mine were heading back from the trip. One of the students decided to be an idiot and tag on the wall. The cops swooped down on the kid and arrested him. When our class heard about the story, I had a laugh, 'cause that student was a complete moron for getting in big trouble and embarrassing the class like that.

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I was born in 1987, so I don't remember much about the graffiti then. However, I still see graffiti on many subway stations, like the Prospect Park station. The "artwork" makes me feel very uncomfortable and doesn't invite an anti-graffiti person like myself. There's still a problem with the annoying tagging, but cops respond quickly.

 

A little story. I took part of a Type II class last semester that took a class trip. The professor took his class the day before on the same. Well, while at the Times Square station, his class before mine were heading back from the trip. One of the students decided to be an idiot and tag on the wall. The cops swooped down on the kid and arrested him. When our class heard about the story, I had a laugh, 'cause that student was a complete moron for getting in big trouble and embarrassing the class like that.

LOL graffiti fail.Now mommy has to take away the crayons and markers:)
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