So - I live in a poor neighborhood. For more than a year there was this government building with a cracked glass door. It was a huge crack, very unattractive, kids would have to push on this glass door to get into the building, which didn't look super safe, but it was clear that while the government would have likely quickly replaced this door had it been in one of the wealthier neighborhoods, they were happy to just let it make the neighborhood look ugly in a poorer neighborhood.
One day I see the door covered in plywood - I learn from an employee that some drunk guy had slammed the door, shattering it completely. The very next day, a brand new door was installed.
The city was forced to replace the door because the damage was so bad they could no longer ignore it ... which got me to thinking.
My part of the city is covered with subway stations that look like they haven't been cleaned since the 1970s. Layers of dirt and bird shit everywhere. Meanwhile, in the wealthier neighborhoods, the stations are taken care of, even though they have more traffic so they would tend to get dirtier faster. There was one time in my neighborhood, a bridge leading to the subway was left with trash up to one's knees for weeks.
I have been thinking about going to these stations late at night with a Pressure Washer and just carving out designs in the dirt, flowers, cats, whatever, but making sure to spell out in big letters "Clean Our District."
Now, I can't be certain, but I don't know that one can be accused of vandalism, when one is removing dirt from a public space, so I could possibly do this in the light of day. But I can not physically clean every subway platform, however the hope is that by highlighting what color the pavement is actually supposed to be, and literally spelling out the need to clean it, the pressure will be on to do so, as this is the kind of art that can only be removed by literally cleaning off the rest of the dirt.