On this day, May 12, 1989, the last graffiti-covered New York City subway car was retired.
The underground graffiti movement took form in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Norman Mailer heralded the drawings as a vibrant form of urban art. But by the 1980s, graffiti covered almost every car, and the subway system seemed lawless.
The city began imposing heavy fines, banning the sale of spray paint to minors and building barbed-wire fences around train yards. But the vandals persisted.
In 1984, the transit authority began to clean the cars as soon as they were vandalized so the taggers could never admire their work. Cleaners were stationed at the end of the train.
Five years later, the entire fleet of 6,245 cars was graffiti-free.
-Scott McCabe
