If throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks works for graffiti artists, it should also work for Lewiston in its initiative to combat graffiti vandalism.

Everything and nothing works to stymie graffiti. Strict laws can punish artists, but not stifle the creativity driving them. Legal graffiti outlets – like walls – aren’t proven long-term solutions. Public clean-ups work, but only until the next vandal’s scrawl appears.

Pursuing only one avenue is shortsighted. Lewiston’s plan, announced Monday, is a smart and ambitious approach toward an issue that’s defied easy resolution thus far. We urge quick Lewiston City Council support.

Graffiti demands a comprehensive strategy. Tough enforcement alone doesn’t work, as unless officers sit on every street corner, at all hours, determined graffiti artists can strike unmolested.

Plus, extra police emphasis is self-defeating, as graffiti done under pressure only earns more hosannas for artists. (“Playing cops and robbers has a lightness to it, and an excitement,” a Montreal graffiti artist told Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper recently about why he still street-paints, when his gallery work fetches $5,000 each.)

Removing this incentive for graffiti is key. Lewiston is trying this by extending amnesty for artists who will come forward and sign pledges to stop painting, designating a graffiti wall in downtown, stiffening weak municipal penalties for graffiti and strengthening the city’s clean-up responses and responsibilities.

Alone, these efforts would have middling success. Together, as sketched by Mayor Laurent Gilbert, chances for progress increase. Lewiston is offering everything possible to graffiti artists to change their behavior.

It won’t work for everybody, naturally. “Those that don’t participate, the penalties come into play,” says Gilbert, a former Lewiston police chief.

But it should work for many, and encourage young artists away from embracing the outlaw culture toward more legitimate pursuits.

Channeling these outbursts of illegal creativity onto one spot, rather than allowing it proliferate across the city, is wise. We are eager to see what the graffiti mural brings to downtown.

The location – opposite Lisbon Street traffic, on the side of the 12-Hour Club – is a conspicuous spot for such a venture. If utilized correctly, the wall could become a colorful dash of urban culture inside the gritty streetscape.

Given its great potential, we ask artists to respect the privilege of the wall’s presence.

We suggest, also, the city of Auburn start a parallel adoption of Lewiston’s initiative. Graffiti isn’t just one city’s problem – have spray can, will travel – and a joint effort is obvious, given interest in a united downtown.

For common problems, the cities should have common approaches, especially tactically slick and comprehensive ones like Lewiston’s graffiti initiative, which is delightfully different than other anti-graffiti plans.

By trying everything, it can actually work.