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Are building murals not associated with ghettos outside the US? Where I live you know if you start seeing big faces on walls you're in the bad part of town and need to be careful.

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It’s not associated with ghettos in the US, either, almost by definition. A mural implies a property owner has usually paid and maintains a piece of art for public consumption. For the mural to survive (no actual graffiti over it) means the community respects the investment and property, too. Ghettos are areas of abject poverty where that sort of community for structural reasons isn’t happening.

Just because the suburbs don’t have murals doesn’t mean that urban areas that do are dangerous.

On the East Coast of the US, I associate large graffiti murals with gentrification, particularly of industrial/formerly industrial neighborhoods. In many (but not all) instances, murals are commissioned or otherwise encouraged as part of "beautifying" those areas.

In San Francisco there are building murals throughout the city. I quite like them!

I'm not sure if there are murals in the richest neighborhoods (Pacific Heights) or the less dense, more suburban neighborhoods (Sunset, Richmond), but there are murals throughout the dense neighborhoods near downtown. (SOMA, the Mission, Haight, etc.)

A lot of murals in some towns in North Carolina too ... here's a sampling from Winston-Salem ... https://www.verbalgoldblog.com/best-wall-murals-instagrammab...

Not in Chicago. The murals throughout the city are beautiful and are very welcome art installations.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/mural_re...

Most of those look quite a bit nicer than ours. I especially like the "lucky wall" one.

In Houston there's enough for a website dedicated to them [0], and they aren't at all associated with "dangerous" parts of town. If anything, if you see one going up, you can bet your property taxes are, too.

[0] https://houstonmuralmap.com/

I have lived in the US (on and off) for decades and have not made this association you describe. It's also common in many European cities, often in middle class neighborhoods.

Palo Alto has street murals scattered around the city in commercial districts and some private homes.

I live in NYC and I associate murals with mainly industrials districts. There are plenty of murals everywhere but if I hit a block that's covered in them I think industrial which I don't associate as a bad part of the city.

In Vancouver we have a mural festival and walking tours of murals with backgrounds on the works and artists. This happens in several neighbourhoods.

https://vanmuralfest.ca/mural-tours

A local store or library decorated with a mural of some idyllic park scene is almost cliche here in Canada. Typical is a giant yellow sun and, yes, the obligatory detached smiling heads. I've seen abstract geometric patterns more often lately. Often done by schoolchildren, or for some community social event. Sometimes commissioned with actual artists. Bridges and underpasses, particularly pedestrian ones, are also candidates for murals. Quite a few like that in Toronto.

Where I live in the United States we have many on the sides of buildings, definitely not associated with "ghettos" here.

In Montreal they are celebrated: we have a mural festival!

And they mostly appear in or near the downtown area.

I suppose it's because residents in the nicer parts of town are very active about not changing the "neighbourhood character" and consequently murals are not permitted unless they're already there.

> Are building murals not associated with ghettos outside the US?

It's two things in the US. It's ghettos, as you say. But more and more it's whites who want to signal that they're "cool" with minority culture, and you see them in economically well off areas.

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