On this day, May 12, in 1989, the last graffiti-covered New York City subway car was retired.
The underground movement took form in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
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Some people, like Norman Mailer, heralded the graffiti as a vibrant form of urban art. But by the 1980s, graffiti covered almost every car, and many riders lumped the taggers with dangerous criminals. The subway system seemed lawless.
The city spent millions of dollars trying to rid the subways of graffiti. They imposed heavy fines, banned the sale of spray paint to minors and built barbed-wire fences around the train yards. Still, the vandals continued.
Finally, in 1984, the transit authority began a new initiative to clean the cars as soon as they were vandalized so that so the taggers could never see their work. Teams of cleaners were stationed at the end of the train.
By 1989, five years later, the entire fleet, 6,245 cars, was graffiti-free.
