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An unknown street artist surprised local authorities on Thursday with an astute and well-reasoned critique of the city’s policies that was spray-painted on the side of every municipal building along Stone Street.
“Young people today feel entitled to scrawl whatever they want on public property—it’s downright selfish," said city resident Susan Barnes. "But I did like the part about how we need to reform methods of negotiating contracts for sanitation workers.”
According to a table of contents that defaces the five-floor exterior of Andrew Garfield Elementary School, the graffiti can be divided into three subsections: “assessment,” “denigration” and “improvement.” The statement is addressed to the mayor, but notes that it “aims to reach any citizen who desires a change from the tiresome, and often redundant, guiding principles of today’s legislature.”
“We all show our style in different ways, have different tags, that sort of thing,” said fellow street artist Rashad Meyers. “This guy’s signature? Probably the proposed screening methods for school board appointments.”
Meyers is not the only resident supportive of the permanent, airbrushed feat of civil disobedience. “I don’t get what all the fuss is about, this is just free art to me,” said neighborhood activist Devon Coleman, gesturing at a vandalized delivery truck behind him. “Pieces like this analysis of the municipal water testing protocol make our city special.”
The mayor’s office has yet to release an official response to the graffiti, although sources report that is because he has not finished reading it.
“If you think that truck is articulate, you should see his three-building criticism of our transit system,” said Police Chief Detective Belinda Evans, observing the scene. “I appreciated the call to give police officers and firemen better health benefits, too.”
“But to be clear, the perp is facing 47 counts of defacement of public property for all this, and we are definitely going to arrest him,” she added.
