The subway was a tagged mess.

http://pix11.com/2015/07/09/retro-wpix-news-report-takes-you-back-to-graffiti-in-new-york-in-the-summer-of-1985/

To this day, I know people who when you mention taking the subway, are afraid of it, simply because of the graffiti and Death Wish” movies.  I don’t think that the taggers, who still try to tag MTA subway cars understand the damage they did to the reputation of the city and it’s rapid transit system.  To say nothing of the enormous expense required to clean up the mess, money that was desperately needed to refurbish and maintain a system the had been the victim of not so benign neglect for decades.