WHATYOUWRITE.COM

Carlos Romero left his spray-painted graffiti marks around San Francisco for years, tagging everything from fences and walls to street signs and trash cans with such monikers as CREAM and QUESO (which in Spanish means cheese).

And it wasn’t just dairy products he had an affinity for. When police linked Romero to one tag name, city officials said, he would simply switch to another, and in addition to CREAM and QUESO he left a trail of COMA, LAFER and MELOH up and down his favorite thoroughfares, namely bustling Mission Street and Ocean Avenue.

The 20-year-old San Francisco resident had a particular fondness for vandalizing public properties, especially those belonging to BART and the Municipal Transportation Agency, which runs the Muni, where he used large, curly letters to scrawl the tag name BST — a reference to the graffiti tagging crew he hangs out with known as Bombing San Francisco Transit.

But much to the relief of city workers who have spent years scrubbing off and painting over Romero’s work, it seems those days are over.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced Monday that his office obtained a civil injunction and $20,000 in financial penalties against Romero, whom Herrera called “one of San Francisco’s most prolific graffiti vandals.”

The case marks the first time the city has filed a civil lawsuit against a graffiti tagger.

“We want to send a message to vandals that we are going to do whatever it takes to go after them,” Herrera said.

While the civil complaint against Romero linked him to 11 tagging incidents, officials say he probably is responsible for countless more. And that’s just during the two years he’s been an adult. Officials said he also has a juvenile record, which they declined to discuss.

“He was one of the most notorious taggers in San Francisco,” said Deputy City Attorney Machaela Hoctor, a member of the city attorney’s Neighborhood and Resident Safety Division, which prosecuted the case. “As San Francisco goes, he’s been an absolute nuisance for the police.”

He also isn’t alone. In 2001, a civil grand jury found that San Francisco spends more than $22 million in taxpayer money annually to clean and cover over graffiti. Today that price tag is believed to be significantly higher. Officials say San Francisco has a reputation among taggers as a “destination city,” meaning people travel from afar just to leave their spray-painted mark on its surfaces.

Earlier this month, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a new effort to streamline the city’s efforts to clean up graffiti by centralizing all removal and abatement through the city’s Department of Public Works, rather than having several city departments respond to the problem. The hope is that public property will be cleaned more quickly. Newsom also earmarked $475,000 in his 2006 proposed budget to help pay for the new plan.

Moreover, an ordinance allows the city to fine property owners who fail to clean up graffiti on their property within 30 days, though exceptions are made for people with financial hardships or whose property is continually hit by taggers.

As for Romero, officials are confident he won’t strike again. In a news release announcing the settlement, Herrera even called the young man, who still lives with his mother, a “reformed tagger.”

As part of the settlement approved Wednesday by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay, Romero agreed to a court-ordered injunction in which for the next five years he will not be allowed to possess anything that can be used for graffiti, such as markers or spray paint — even stickers and shoe polish. He has a curfew that forces him to be indoors by 11 p.m., and he is barred from being within 100 yards of any intersection where he is known to have tagged.

And just as his graffiti has achieved notoriety, his voice may, too, as Romero will become the city’s spokesman of sorts for what the bureaucrats like to call graffiti abatement when he performs a radio public service announcement warning others about the consequences of committing vandalism.

His $20,000 fine will be reduced by half if he manages to pay $10,000 within four years.

He has a day job at the Pottery Barn that could help cover the costs.

Romero, who city officials said declined to have a lawyer represent him during the proceedings, did not return calls seeking comment.

“He took responsibility,” Hoctor said, adding that Romero cooperated fully during the city attorney’s four-month investigation. “He was accountable, and that goes a long way for his chance of reform.”

To Mohammed Nuru, deputy director of operations for the Department of Public Works and chairman of the city’s graffiti advisory board task force, the injunction against Romero was good news.

“It’s all over the area,” Nuru said of Romero’s taggings near the City College of San Francisco, and though he was unfamiliar with Romero’s name, he knew all too well his tag moniker CREAM, which stands for “Cash Rules Everything Around Me.”

“I’m very happy to see the judge make the right judgment when it comes to people who are defacing public or private property,” Nuru said.

Romero was arrested and charged with six misdemeanor counts involving graffiti in a criminal case last year, according to the city’s civil complaint. He performed 39 hours of community service as a result, and the charges were dropped.

And though he was on probation for another graffiti-related incident, he continued to offend, the complaint said. In seven of the 11 cases mentioned in the complaint, Romero admitted to police that he was responsible for the graffiti, and police witnessed him doing the actual graffiti in some others.

In one case last year, Romero was detained by police for spray-painting BST in green on a privately owned wall, and he immediately told the officer, “It was me. I spray-painted the banner,” the complaint said.

The officer searched Romero’s backpack and found it filled with graffiti tools: cans of tan, green and orange spray paint, permanent markers, a container of shoe polish and various sticker decals with his monikers CREAM and MELOH. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 90 hours of graffiti removal and 18 months probation.

Romero hangs out with the BST tagging crew, but Hoctor said it was unknown exactly how many members there are in the group.

And while he mainly targeted Ocean Avenue and Mission Street, areas that are close to his home, his graffiti has been seen all over the city, particularly near BART stations, Hoctor said.

During the investigation, Romero told authorities that he focused primarily on city-owned property and that he typically tried to stay away from damaging personal property “because he knows the effect it has on residents,” Hoctor said.

Street poles tended to be a favorite.

But, she noted, “that being said, the last incident he was arrested for was for tagging on personal property.”

E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at cvega@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/25/MNGR8K4UI51.DTL

some pics stolen from :http://trendynation.blogspot.com/

BEAR 167

?

Fab 5 FREDDY

Crash..

July 28th (Friday)
3:00 PM – 9:00PM
Admission: $20 before 5PM and $25 after.
Location: Crobar – 320 West 28th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenue.
Performance by The GZA & Masta Killa of Wu Tang Clan
Mayda Del Valle (Def Poet)
Hosted By Grandmaster Caz of the Legendary Cold Crush Brothers and Kool Ski of Rock Steady Crew
Spy Awards (IVAN THE ACTION FIGURE, BETA, REMIND)
DJ’s Skeme Richards (RSC) and Ultraviolet (Philly)
2 on 2 B-Girl Battle
1 on 1 battle
All contestants must secure their spots on the list before 5PM at the venue.

July 29th (Saturday)
Location: Crobar
3:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Battles Start at 5:00PM. Arrive early!!
Live Break Beats for the first 2 hours performed by Butta
Admission: $20
Crew Battles
Hosted by Kool Ski of Rock Steady Crew
All contestants must secure their spots on the list before 5PM at the venue.

July 30th (Sunday)
Performances by: Big Daddy Kane, Large Professor, Rhymefest, AG of D.I.T.C., O.C. D.I.T.C, Lord Jamal, Q-Unique, PackFM, Agallah, Wise Intelligence, Ill Bill, Many Styles, Mayda Del Valle (Def Poet), Project Move, Krucial.

DJ’s, Red Alert, Q-Tip, Eclipse (RSC), Evil Dee (RSC), Charlie Chase and Jazzy Jay

Live Graff pieces by Terrible T-Kid, COPE 2, 2 Fly, Indie 184 and QA

Hosted by
End Of The Weak

1:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Lincoln Park on Broad Street
Newark, NJ

VIA PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
From New Jersey, New York City, or points beyond
Take PATH, Amtrak, or NJ Transit trains to Newark Penn Station. Buses: #70, #62 and #39 will bring you from Newark Penn Station to the corner of Broad and Lincoln Park. Cabfare to Lincoln Park from Penn Station is approximately $4.00.
Log on to www.njtransit.com or call NJ Transit for up to date (800) 722-2222 bus and train schedules and travel information.

VIA NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE
From New York City, North and South Jersey
Take the NJ Turnpike to exit 14 (Newark International Airport). Follow signs for Rt. 21 North. Take exit for Rt. 21 North. Take Broad street exit & proceed straight. Lincoln Park is 1/2 mile up on the left.
VIA GARDEN STATE PARKWAY & RT. 280 EAST
From Northern and Southern New Jersey
Take the Garden State Parkway to Exit 145 (Rt. 280 East). take Rt. 280 east; stay to the right and follow signs towards Harrison. Take 14A for King Boulevard. At the bottom of the ramp, make a right turn at the light onto Martin Luther King Blvd. Go 1-1/2 blocks and make a left at the light onto Orange St. Two blocks down, Orange street deadends into Broad St; turn right onto Broad St. Lincoln Park is 1-1/2 miles down on the right on the Southern End of Broad Street just past Newark Symphony Hall.

VIA ROUTE 287, ROUTE 80 AND ROUTE 280

Take Route 287 to route 80 to route 280 East. Take Rt. 280 East, stay to the right and following signs toward Harrison. Take Exit 14a for Martin Luther King Blvd. At the bottom of the ramp, make a right turn onto Martin Luther King Blvd. Go 1-1/2 blocks and make a left at the light onto Orange Street. Two blocks down, Orange St. deadends into Broad St; turn right onto Broad St. Lincoln Park is 1-1/2 miles down on the right on the southern end of Broad Street just past Newark Symphony Hall.

NO VIDEO CAMERAS ALLOWED AT ANY OF THE EVENTS

July 27, 2006 — The career of “SMASH” - the “king of subway graffiti” in New York City and the No. 1 target of transit cops for months - has been derailed following his bust for defacing dozens of subway cars, The Post has learned.”SMASH” is the tag of Abe Charon, 25, who was nabbed last Friday after Transit Vandal Squad cops, armed with a search warrant, raided his grandmother’s Brooklyn residence on Miller Avenue in East New York, where he also lives.

Inside, they discovered an array of graffiti-making tools, including “acid cream,” which Charon allegedly used to burn his name into subway windows.

“He’s the king of acid etching. He’s done the most we’ve ever seen,” said Capt. Elwood Selover, of the Transit Division Vandal Squad.

Charon was arraigned last Saturday and released without bail.

philip.messing@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews

/cops_smash_graffiti_king_regionalnews_philip_messing.htm

BURNING NEW YORK, by James and Karla Murray, the long awaited sequel to the best selling BROKEN WINDOWS: Graffiti NYC is finally set for September 2006 release! The 220 page HARDCOVER book is packed with full-color panoramic images and larger text and features five oversize fold-outs printed front and back for 10 huge walls. Hundreds of interviews. All new chapters include: TAGS, PAINT and COLORS, BLACKBOOKS, BODE, FEMALE WRITERS, BATTLING, BOMBING, CREWS, FAME and STYLES.

Gingko Press ISBN: 1-58423-173-4 $39.95 and Amazon

“From the ashes of the 60s to the dust of Ground Zero, New York graffiti has magnetized and polarized, rocked and shocked. When the hot-eyed and restless ride the city’s edge to turn dead walls into worlds of color, motion, and passion, Jim and Karla Murray capture their visions and voices with a fire to match. Don’t blink.” Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

As legendary New York street artist STASH readies for the opening of his show of new paintings “Alphabet City” at Philadelphia’s Lineage gallery, Supertouch checks in with the underground art star to see where his head’s at.

What year did you start writing graffiti, and was STASH your original tag?
Around 1982-ish. Damn, am I old! I had a couple of different things going for a minute back then, identity-wise, but none worth mentioning…

How did you get into the scene and who were you writing with in your early days?
I got into the scene by being a city kid I guess, and I was surrounded by a lot of different influences. In terms of style, I guess my biggest inspiration would have to be my friend DUSTER.

What’s your opinion of modern graffiti & tagging? Is there too much? Not enough? Did things change when kids stopped bombing trains?
All of the above. Of course writing has changed since the days of bombing trains. It evolved as heads had to find a new surface to express themselves. Modern graffiti is amazing, heads GO THE FUCK OFF! The tagging seems to be harsh at times, but understandable. Etching fluid? We didn’t have that then, but chances are I would have used it if we did, so who am I to say?

Has your attitude changed towards graffiti now that you’re older & a father and business owner? How would you react if your office building got bombed or your son got caught painting a wall?
My kids are too young, so no worries there! As far as getting bombed, fuck it,
happens all the time. We’re due for a paintjob at the office. That’s life…

Do you still consider yourself a graffiti artist or do you think you’ve moved into the Pop Art world?
It’s hard to consider my self anything other than a graff artist. I don’t know,
maybe a graphic artist?

(NYC, 2006: STASH doing his thing on a wall & discussing game with streetwear
legend Shawn Stüssy)

Does graffiti-based imagery lose something when it’s painted on a canvas for an art gallery instead of in the street. How is your artwork different when you paint “STASH” on canvas instead of a wall?
Well, myself, I like to use and paint the icons of the spraycan movement as well as some lettering now and again. It’s a bit different than when I just painted my name. Painting in public can be stressful as well as exciting, but I much prefer to be in my studio.

Tell me about your newest series of paintings about to go on display at Lineage Gallery in Philly. What was your inspiration and what direction were you trying to go with these new works?
It’s all about the spray nozzle, AKA “fat cap”. Tools of the trade revisited on a new medium. I got to work with these serious fine art printers to create a one-off original set of canvases. I’m super excited about the 60″ halftone spray cans. I created about 27 new pieces for the show in all. •

“Alphabet City” runs from July 21 – August 20 at Lineage Gallery in Philadelphia…

interview and pictures from http://www.supertouchblog.com/ 

Thanks to Jorge Valenzuela for the photos.

This Saturday!
July 22, 2006
5-8pm Mike the PoeT (book signing)
&
Mear One
(live painting)

Mike the PoeT will be signing his new book entitled I Am Alive in Los Angeles as well as dropping some of his spoken word.

Mear One will be creating one of his classic freestyle masterpieces right before your eyes.

Downtown Address:
110 Winston St. (at Main St., between 4th & 5th)
Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90013

Blade blastin Europe

images from http://www.aerosolplanet.com/