How much more graffiti in Aberdeen will it take for someone to stop it?
- Aberdonian
- Jan 17
- 2 min read
Every city has it. Well at least in the UK.
But in some European countries (e.g. Denmark or Norway) or Asian countries (e.g. Singapore) graffiti is taken much more seriously by those tasked with making their cities pleasant to visit, and tourists can look forward to visiting beautiful graffiti-free cities.
Residents also benefit from living in an inspirational, uplifting environment.
Yet here in Aberdeen, at a time when Council chiefs are desperate to bring in tourists off the cruise ships (although you wouldn't think it with their desire to introduce a tourist tax), graffiti in the city centre has never been worse. Walls, metal telephony boxes, shop doors, residents' doors, bridges, posters, construction sites, traffic lights, signs and bollards - it matters not, "if it doesn't move, spray it" seems to be the motto.
Even a brand new shop on Union Street which hasn't even opened yet, has recently been sprayed in several places over its new grey paintwork. How pathetic must be the sad person that did that. No doubt when they finally grow up and get a home of their own (courtesy of the Council probably), they will be the first to kick off if someone dares to spray their door.
Yet no one seems to do anything to stop this. No doubt the police just ignore it because it is classed as "low level" crime. Even when the graffiti consists of the sprayer's tag and surely identifies them to those in the know, the police make no attempt to find that person and throw the book at them.
And therein lies the problem. If you just ignore this problem it will only get worse.
There comes a point where someone has to legally step in and discourage this free-for-all.
If it were up to me, I would have an automatic 3-month prison sentence for anyone caught doing this. Then they might think twice about doing it again.
But I'm not holding my breath. I don't expect anything will change.
It's the tourists I feel sorry for, spending all that money to come to Aberdeen then finding the city centre isn't the beautiful sparkly granite city shining in the sun that they read so much about in the holiday brochures.
Instead they discover Aberdeen' s centre is a dirty, run-down, delapidated city centre covered in ugly painted graffti everywhere you care to look.
(And to be honest, I do think that the NUART visit every year that encourages artists to paint on walls throughout the centre rather normalises the idea of painting walls, and gives other "less-skilled" individuals the belief that they similarly have the right to spray anywhere they choose. Perhaps they also think the public should appreciate their work and be grateful for it?)
It shouldn't be this way. The Council and the law need to get their act together on this issue.
They haven't stopped it. They won't stop it. The cooncil shrugs because our civil servants quite literally "don't do" hard problems.
It's up to us. I'm not talking vigilantism. I'm talking about not accepting it, and scrubbing it off. For large works, at least defacing it cleaner. Not from private property, because then you're liable for damage (and there will be scuffing). As we know: no good deed goes unpunished.
We should be fining building-owners to leave it.
It's a good bit of exercise and upper-body work, too.
The most important thing is: it makes the vandal aware that someone cares. I clean that shit off my street the day I see it; the sooner you do, the sooner they…