Dan Rodricks: Turning graffitists to muralists, trash to cash and catfish to hash

Nobody asked me, but, with graffiti out of control in parts of Baltimore, why not round up the vandals, exchange their spray paint for paint brushes and put them to work on murals? It could be a collaborative effort led by the mayor’s staff, similar to the effective approach taken with squeegee guys. Maybe graffitists could be convinced that their contributions to murals — new ones, such as Saba Hamidi’s amazing “corridor of color” along the Maryland Avenue overpass of the Jones Falls Expressway, and touch-ups of old ones — would be more lasting than graffiti and certainly more appreciated.