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Citizen complaint of the day: Oh, why do I even bother?

Allston stickers

A frustrated citizen in Allston sighs:

Tags and stickers everywhere in Allston. Where to start? who cares. it's Allston and nobody cares. waste of city resorces to bother, no?

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Comments

artistic expression, no? These are "slap tags" created by talented young people who simply wish to express themselves, no? They perhaps could be the next Banksy, no? You have developed the affectation of ending sentences with "no" to sound more worldly, no? Then you should certainly understand art, no?

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I can't wait to buy product from the transient talented young artist from outside the city who slapped a Grand Theft Auto 5 sticker on the back of a stop sign. I hope he got a full ride to Mass Art or Emerson with such amazing skill. The cloud of illegal narcotic smoke he left behind was just the icing on the cake of such a rich artistic future. I hope he ends up moving to Boston after his 4 years of challenging and studious artistic training are over so he can enrich us citizens with more of his expression.

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If he was really worldly he'd be ending the sentences with "Why, no?"
Now that is, as Pauly would say, "all class."

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We have volunteers that go around and remove a lot of this by hand. There' s a system to give standing permission for a city truck to remove tags on buildings. I think some residents paint trash cans. Not sure what u need to do about USPS boxes but they can tell u. The city will help but only if the residents take the lead.

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Personally I think stickers aren't what's wrong with Allston but whatevs

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It's the broken window theory of policing (not to be confused with the economic parable of the broken window). There have been several studies shown which find that maintaining an orderly appearance, free of graffiti, litter, and the like, can substantially reduce other types of crime.

So sure, stickers may not be the problem, but they can lead to further problems and a feeling of general decay.

Or, you know, we could just give up and "keep Allston shitty."

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I thought the USPS took care of cleaning their equipment when vandalized, not the city. I agree with the citizen about the sign -- so long as the stickers aren't offensive or blocked the sign's purpose there are better things to fix.

What I don't understand is why the USPS or the city don't encourage more murals for things like mail transfer boxes and other city equipment. Murals can add to the area and people are less likely to vandalize art. Give a starving Allston artist $150 for paint and time and give them a 1-time permit to paint something nice on a designated spot.

Washington DC did something similar with defunct fire pull boxes. On many of them you can see a small scene painted on the inside where the electronics (mechanics) once were.

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There's a difference between artists and vandals. I don't think you understand it.

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In Alston most, if not all, of the traffic light control boxes are painted by artists at least. Not surprisingly they don't get tagged or covered with stickers unlike the ones right down the street in Brighton.

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Is an oxymoron, unless you're referring to the mass art/Emerson kids who spent all of daddy's money on weed so they can't afford foie gras.

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