New mural behind a Bloor West IDA becomes the latest area initiative promoting street art as detterent for vandalism
A building in Koreatown has followed the lead of other local commercial properties by combating malicious, tag-oriented graffiti with artist-commissioned and city-approved street art. Over the past week, artists from Under the Radar (UTR), a youth-led social enterprise, have worked on an expansive mural in the alley behind the IGA IDA building on Bloor West between Manning and Clinton.
According to UTR program coordinator and veteran street artist Javid Alibhai, the commissioning of street art is becoming increasingly popular for store-owners who want to cover up unwanted graffiti. “White washing a building often invites further graffiti,” says Alibhai, “and it costs the store-owner, who has to pay for the cover-up process, as well as the cost of city inspectors and graffiti abatement crews.” By commissioning murals, store-owners are promoting street art in the area and hopefully diminishing their chances of getting hit with blemishing tags.
Street art has become increasingly contentious in Toronto these days. The Jane’s Walk organization has long been a proponent of street art, transforming some west-end alleyways into grafitti’ed tourist attractions. But our mayor is uncompromising in his view of graffiti as vandalism. Alibhai worked closely with store-owner Theresa Poon and the Koreatown BIA to make sure that this mural will remain as is. In fact, a walk around Koreatown and the neighboring Annex shows that the area has been embracing street art for a while now. According to Koreatown BIA Chairman Joseph Kang, street art has been endorsed by business owners as a way of improving the aesthetics of the area. The popular painted sidewalk planters along Bloor are just some of the many examples of city-approved street art that can been seen while taking a walk from Koreatown to The Annex.
