`Leniency is over`: the controversial plan to scrub off São Paulo`s famous street art
(The Guardian Brazil)

Mayor João Doria has been down on his knees, spraying grey paint over the city´s beloved graffiti murals. Locals are furiousFor many of the 12 million people who live in São Paulo, sitting in traffic and staring out the window at the graffiti-coated walls that line the 23 de Maio thoroughfare is a daily ritual, defining life in the city like the shake of a London umbrella or the swipe of a New York Metrocard. In a city locked in by traffic and grey high-rises, these long swaths of colourful, ever-changing graffiti images - beautiful, ugly, political and sometimes offensive - serve as jagged cuts in the city´s visual monotony.And then, one morning, the walls were grey. Related: The populist bishop and the Apprentice host: meet Brazil`s new megacity mayors The mayor is declaring war on taggers but no one knows what`s tagging and what`s graffiti. Artists will be deterred Related: Pixação: the story behind São Paulo`s `angry` alternative to graffiti Continue reading...