There's a tunnel near my house which  leads to the other side of the highway, which leads straight to the lake, which leads straight to my son's high school. Given that he rides his bike to school every day now, this tunnel has proven extremely useful.

The other day, he asked me to ride our bikes together to the library. This meant that I would have to go into the tunnel myself. Being that I'm not fond of enclosed spaces, it was with reluctance that I said yes. 

With dress pants, dress jacket (I was too lazy to change), bright white running shoes and a helmet, I got on my bike and rode the three minutes to the tunnel. I got off my bike and started to walk underground  to the exit on the other side. I looked around examining the cameras, wishing there were more.

"They paint it every week," my son said when I commented on the strong smell of fresh paint.

"Why every week?" I asked.

""Because of the graffiti."

Wow. That means that the painters who add the layers of white have a permanent job! They come here on a regular basis knowing that there will be graffiti. What would make the graffiti artists stop? I thought. After all, it didn't look much like art in this case; it looked more like scribbles and an attempt to make a mess. I grant that some graffiti is exquisitely done and shows real talent, but this was not it. It was a mess and made the place look scary. What could make them stop... Not that the permanent job for the city painters wasn't a good thing—regular work is always a good thing—but, well, what a waste of time. Maybe they could be doing other things rather than repainting the same walls every week.

The idea I came up with was the same as years ago when I looked upon huge canvasses being created on the side of buildings which had a large plain side. In fact, many of these buildings looked like an empty canvas wanting to be colored and decorated. Maybe the young people doing the graffiti really only wanted to create art, make things beautiful. Maybe by adding something already beautiful there, they would leave it alone, respect another artist's masterpiece.

I have seen this work time and time again: On the side of pools they sometimes hire an artist to paint a picture, a beautiful grand mural, and more often than not, the graffiti artists leave it alone. They do not come to put their own imprint on it. And when they do, it's very minimal. The grand art overpowers the minimal scribbles.

I truly don't believe that graffiti designers mean to harm. I believe they have an urge to fill open space. They have a desire to add their imprint, their signature, their name— to leave their mark.

Today, with the Internet there are so many opportunities to add our name. I wonder if unwanted graffiti  is still as common as it had been years ago since nowadays there are ways to express ourselves and leave our imprint.

Anyway, I think that the city should find perhaps the graffiti artists, who can easily be identified in all the cameras, and HIRE them to make a mural throughout the tunnel. This would ultimately save the city a lot of money. It would also give them a chance to leave their mark for good, with something they can be proud of—which won't constantly be painted over.