Spray Paint Decision Could Slow Graffiti Artists, Force Alternatives

In a region where violent gangs send death messages to one another on cinder-block alley walls and street artists with tag names like “Hex” and “Slick” substitute buildings for the conventional canvas, the question on some people’s lips Friday was this:

Will new anti-smog regulations that restrict the manufacture of spray paint eventually put a dent in the graffiti that colors the Los Angeles landscape?

The answer seems to depend on who is doing the talking.

“If there’s no aerosol cans, the kids will have to be out there paint-brushing, and that takes too long,” says Carlos Flores, acting director of Project Heavy, a nonprofit graffiti removal service.

“I am sure,” countered Los Angeles Police Officer Michael Strawberry, who works with the department’s anti-gang CRASH unit, “that they will come up with something else. There’ll be (an) alternative.”

The regulations were enacted Friday by the South Coast Air Quality Management District as part of an anti-pollution measure. They will require paint manufacturers to reduce the amount of smog-forming chemicals in spray paint cans so drastically that by 1996, the manufacturers say, virtually 90% of all aerosol products will be eliminated from the market.

“Fantastic!” exclaimed Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) on hearing of the AQMD’s decision. “But not soon enough.”

Torres has pressed for legislation to ban the sale of spray paint cans, but the bill was defeated in the Assembly in August. The senator wants to put an end to gang graffiti and thinks depriving the artists of the major tool of their trade is the way to do it.