There is a common controversy of Hawaii
being the perfect paradise, but is it really how it seems. Over the years there
were many cases of graffiti. This is a loss for both the taggers, and the
government because it cost money to paint over, too. There really is no point
in trying to stop them. Out of Hawaii’s imperfections, graffiti is an issue
that make the islands no the “perfect place” everyone thinks it is.
Graffiti is very unappealing to everyone, especially the tourists that come to
Hawaii. According to The Honolulu Star Advertiser, “Spray-painted scrawl is
ever present on walls, utility boxes, signs, etc.” When tourists come to
Hawaii, they expect to see the beautiful beaches, and nice towns, not graffiti
on buildings. It also looks very rundown. If they wanted to see that, they could just stay in the
mainland. Then, it wouldn’t make Hawaii any more special than another place. Graffiti
is a persistent problem to government and private property owners. These
property owners are the ones that pay for the damage. If the building belongs
to a business, then it could lower the amount of consumers due to the visual
garbage. For all the hard work they have to put in to get rid of the graffiti,
they could lose money, and people lose their job. This visual garbage in very
unpleasant to the eye, and can repel people, like uninformed tourists.
These people that vandalize are reckless and love to graffiti. In the star
advertiser, it says that the police arrests taggers, but are still encouraged.
This is what they do, and this is their hobby. They aren’t going to stop
because they just love to graffiti. This is the way they express themselves
through art. Plus, they probably enjoy how angry the police get. They are the
rascal type of people who enjoy making trouble. Star advertiser quotes,
“Several groups are fighting paint with paint.” Not only does this affect the
groups, but it also affects our environment. The groups don’t realize that if
they paint over it, then the taggers are going to paint over that, too. Then
more paint fumes will be in the air, constantly hurting our environment.
These taggers are enjoying the anger that groups have because they paint on
their property five hours after they just painted over it. They don’t care
about what people think because they are just doing their thing.
Through all these graffiti problems, the government and police must be enraged
by this madness. There were 1111 graffiti cases and 227 arrests in 2005. This
doesn’t make Hawaii look like a better place. If mainlanders knew this, then
they wouldn’t want to tour here, which could drop our economy. The tourists are
the ones that we get money from, and we need Hawaii to look clean. Little kids
think that graffiti is cool because it’s very colorful, but if they are
influenced to vandalize, then there will be more problems. It costs $5211 for
replacing signs on the H-1 freeway. There should be a special place where
taggers could put their art so that it doesn’t affect any other people.
Otherwise, they would just keep spray-painting on the signs, and causing more
trouble. The angered government should do something about this.
Graffiti is unappealing to the eye, cost lost of money, and taggers just won’t
quit. Tourists should rethink their idea of Hawaii being the perfect paradise.
It’s not just beautiful beaches, but nasty graffiti. The government should do
something and stop this madness. As for the tourists, they shouldn’t move here
either, due to the fact that Hawaii isn’t so perfect. And if they move here, it
would cause even more trouble.