Ed Koch Archives - Community Rejuvenation Project

CRP’s Desi Mundo Returns to Chicago for Two-Week Residency at Hyde Park Art Center

June 2, 2014

It’s been said you can’t go back home again. For Community Rejuvenation Project founder and Executive Director Desi Mundo, however, that wasn’t exactly the case. After 14 years of living in Oakland, where he founded CRP — which has become the city’s most prolific producers of public murals — Mundo returned to Chicago, the city he first learned the aerosol arts in, for a two-week residency at Hyde Park Art Center, which happened to be celebrating its 75th anniversary. In…

The Zero Graffiti International Conference: At Odds with Long Term Solutions?

January 25, 2013

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates, Op-Eds

The First Annual Zero Graffiti International Conference was held in San Francisco last week. Hundreds of police officers, public works officials, “graffiti” consultants, and industry reps from 52 cities gathered as the industry that has grown up around abatement announced that it had made $17 billion in profit in the United State alone. Despite the massive expenditure, no study has been undertaken to measure the effectiveness of simple abatement on vandalism recidivism. San Francisco alone spends $20 – 30 million…

Nova Scotia Discovers the Solution!

November 27, 2012

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

Halifax property owners have discovered a solution for their vandalism problems. Instead of chasing away the youth at night, they are encouraging higher quality works on their space during the day. What they have discovered is that most young writers simply want to express themselves. Given legitimate forums and encouragement, they focus on developing themselves and their style and they create masterpieces. According to the youth, blank walls are a target. But high quality murals and masterpieces invoke respect. Its…

Los Angeles’ War on Aerosol Writers

November 19, 2012

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates, Op-Eds

This is the second of a three part series by the Community Rejuvenation Project on the perpetual criminalization of aerosol culture, the abatement industry and the politics of incarceration. In the first article, we addressed the methods that law enforcement uses to inflate vandalism charges, pressure them into plea bargains and then cash in with exorbitant fines and fees. In this article, we address the prison industrial complex and the realities faced by everyday youth swept up into this system through…