I get your point. The covering up or social ills though is not the places I am talking about.
Have you ever seen a house hold where the place looks just plain crap and run down? The curtains are old and haven't been renewed in over 20 years; the walls haven't been painted and are cracked and peeling; the windows themselves need changing but nothing has been done about it. You look at the parents of the household and say 'This is terrible. How can anyone live in these conditions? How can anyone let their CHILDREN live in these conditions?'
Now imagine that SAME home used to have renervations done but everytime new windows were put up, those dam kids broke them; every time the walls were painted, those dam kids would piss on them and throw magwabethe at them (sand bombs); ever time the curtains were changed those dam kids would pull at them and whipe their noses with them. All that money is just gone in the sniff of a nose and it leaves the parent wondering 'Why should I even bother making this place look nice? Look like something worth being proud of? It's a waste of money.'
As a result, NO ONE in the house is proud of their home. They throw their trash and dirty cloths anywhere and just leave dirty dishes all over the place. Why bother?
I feel that graffiti does the same thing. I feel municipalities and enterprises or even private wealthy individuals have the same sentiment as the 'parental figures' - not by nature of their wealth but by the nature that they have the funds to repair.
As for hypocracy, I disagree. We all have our liberty to appreciate one thing and not like another. It's not hypocritical to love Chiefs and hate Pirates is it? There is some art that we look at and we like, and some that we don't. We do it with many things: Cars, houses, teams, songs. It's not about the art itself - so much as the standard of the art.
But I suppose you are right, a kid's got to start some where and abandoned factories I suppose are far better than the new flat complex erected in the neighbourhood.
Still though, it really makes some metropolitan areas look plain shit (the 'finger painting' ones) and I have kept to the teaching: Don't shit where you sleep.