Welcome to the Nanny State: A Post-Soda Ban Look At New York City’s Biggest Crackdowns
Subway Graffiti
To a lot of people, the graffiti that covered much of the subway in the 70s and 80s came to symbolize everything that was decrepit and lawless about the city during those years. In the early days of the so-called “Fixing Broken Windows” policy, which entailed making small but highly visible civic improvements, the city focused intensely on cleaning up the tagged trains as a morale-boosting measure. Police presence on the transit system was increased and train yards were protected with harsh new measures like razor wire and guard dogs. By and large it worked, and the last graffitied train supposedly taken out of service in 1989.
As we all know, graffiti culture and street art quietly disappeared thereafter, and were never seen or heard from again.