The handwriting’s on the wall: Cities can win the graffiti war

It is an eyesore, a visible sign of decay and seemingly ubiquitous. Graffiti, seen on buildings, overpasses, sidewalks, billboards and fences, has long been an insidious contributor to urban decay — driving down real estate prices, hastening middle class flight to the suburbs and indirectly eroding a city’s tax base.
From Boston to Burbank, cities across the nation have recognized its destructive effects and marshaled their resources to fight back. Many cities have implemented broad-based anti-graffiti programs that have garnered the support of neighborhood, church and civic groups.

Municipalities have employed a wide arsenal of strategies to combat graffiti; many tout their efforts on Internet web pages, with newsletters and through extensive public relations campaigns.

Their programs typically include educational efforts, graffiti telephone hotlines, a crackdown by police and courts, restitution by convicted offenders and strict lockup ordinances requiring that spray paint sold in stores be locked in cabinets as opposed to placed on open display shelves. Some cities have filed lawsuits against graffiti vandals.

Chicago went so far as to ban spray paint sales in the city, something the Philadelphia City Council considered several months ago but decided against. Several cities, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Vancouver, British Columbia, have adopted “zero tolerance zones” where top priority is given to removal of graffiti within 24 hours.

Other cities go the opposite route, establishing graffiti “free zones” where taggers can place their monikers with impunity.

GRAFFITI’S ILL EFFECTS

Anti-graffiti programs are so extensive and widespread because of near universal agreement on the adverse effects of this form of vandalism.

“Graffiti destroys neighborhoods. It is one of the most visible signs of a neighborhood in decline,” says Kevin Feeley, deputy mayor for communications for the city of Philadelphia. “It brings a sense of a loss of control of a neighborhood. It drives people away, threatens business.”

“We have literally gotten hundreds of letters from (owners of) small businesses thinking of moving out of the city because of graffiti,” says Terry Levin, a spokesman for the city of Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation. “What they found was that if they left the graffiti up, the customers were reluctant to go into their stores. If they paint over it, and it gets re-tagged, it costs them money.”

Proprietors told Chicago officials that graffiti vandalism — not to mention the customers it drives away — must be factored into the cost of doing business in the city just as taxes and utility bills are, says Levin.

Experts say graffiti, which usually is painted but is also often done with indelible markers, takes numerous forms. It can be random scrawlings, drawings by people who fancy themselves artists, or gang-related symbols.

Most major cities have established telephone hotlines for residents to report graffiti vandalism. Many have employed work crews whose major responsibility is to travel around the city removing graffiti — either painting over it or scrubbing the surface clean, depending on the type of surface, the outside temperature and other factors. Trucks equipped with pressurized hot water tanks are sometimes used to remove graffiti from brick walls, sidewalks and block walls. “Soda blasters” which resemble sandblasters but use a solution of baking soda and water, are also used.

Spray painting or brush painting over graffiti is another option. Many cities use computerized color matching to eliminate paint-over blotches. Paint companies often donate paint and tools to aid anti-graffiti programs and also promote responsible practices by retailers.

The tremendous differences in neighborhoods, infrastructure and demographics from one major city to another account for variations in graffiti-fighting strategies.

Phoenix, for example, has a unique problem in that the majority of its 380,000 households have some type of swimming pool in the yard, often enclosed by a brick wall. “The opportunity for graffiti around here is really great, and the odds against us are terrible,” says Victor Morrison-Vega, deputy director of the Neighborhood Services Department

Fortunately, about $360,000 in federal community development block grants is available to help Phoenix in this uphill struggle. This represents part of the city’s total $750,000 budget for anti-graffiti efforts in fiscal year 1997. Like many other cities, Phoenix has taken a multi-departmental approach to halting graffiti’s spread.

In 1990, the Neighborhood Services Department launched Graffiti Busters as a one-year pilot program. The program has proved successful in the years since, supplying community groups with paint and lending them tools to paint over or remove graffiti in their neighborhoods.

In 1996, Graffiti Busters donated 16,372 gallons of paint to community organizations. The program removed graffiti from 14,337 sites last year. Motorists and other passersby can call the Graffiti Busters Hotline to report graffiti ’round the clock.

But Phoenix won’t settle for just one successful program. “We’re just one piece of the graffiti-fighting puzzle,” says Kim Dorney Rodriguez, deputy director of neighborhood services. She explains that the police, parks and public transit departments are also heavily involved.

Among the city’s anti-graffiti ordinances is one that allows city work crews to remove graffiti from private property if the owner has not done so within 10 days of receiving a notice of violation. The city then bills the property owner for the removal.

Additionally, two years ago, a reward program was established for information leading to the arrest of a graffiti vandal. So far, $40,435 has been awarded. Phoenix police also treat graffiti vandalism in progress as a 911 priority.

Once graffiti vandals are arrested, charged and convicted, Phoenix wants them to make amends for their transgressions. That’s why Phoenix and Maricopa County jointly created Project SCRUB — Stop Crime and Reduce Urban Blight. Project SCRUB requires convicted graffiti offenders to do up to 80 hours of community service work.

As a long-term preventive measure, the Neighborhood Services Department makes available an educational coloring book for young children and a mascot, “Neighborhoodasaurus,” that presents the anti-graffiti message.

Along those lines, another western city, San Jose, Calif., offers a puppet show — “Kids On the Block” — to third graders, teaching them about the harmful effects of graffiti. The city also publishes a quarterly newsletter covering graffiti trends and offering recognition to volunteers. “Virtual Valley” is an on-line service available to keep San Jose residents informed about anti-graffiti programs, upcoming events and volunteer opportunities.

San Jose maintains a paint bank where residents can pick up free paint and graffiti removal products two days a month by appointment. The “Adopt-A-Block” program offers materials and training to residents wishing to take a leadership role in the war against graffiti. San Jose also supplies paint, training and materials for “Group PaintOuts” in which friends, classmates, neighbors, co-workers and church members get together to paint out graffiti.

Across the continent, New York City, perhaps afflicted with the nation’s worst graffiti problem, has dedicated a citywide police squad to fighting the problem and employs a hotline. This kind of response is needed in light of the fact that hundreds of graffiti artists converge on New York from around the world every summer on a “graffiti world tour,” according to the newsletter Graffiti Reporter.

New York has also gone one step further by using junior high school students as undercover investigators to find out which stores are violating the city ordinances by selling them spray paint and indelible markers.

Another East Coast city, Philadelphia, has created “zero tolerance zones” in federal empowerment zones that encompass an 11.7-mile section of Broad Street, American Street and parts of north central and west Philadelphia. “Graffiti Abatement Teams” respond within 24 hours to any report of new graffiti on a building. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the elimination of all graffiti along the Broad Street Corridor in just the first two months of that zero tolerance zone’s existence.

The paint industry, partly as a response to city council efforts to limit the purchase of spraypaint, has agreed to supply free paint to city and neighborhood workers involved in graffiti eradication.

Moreover, the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN), which is funded and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Community Service, helps youth create murals at selected sites throughout the city.

PAGN mobilizes community groups and local youth in an effort to keep all recreation centers graffiti-free. The Mural Arts Program, founded in 1984 to help provide alternatives for former graffiti writers, is responsible for some 1,400 murals throughout the city. It features after-school workshops and a summer arts program.

WINDY CITY BLOWS AWAY GRAFFITI

In Chicago, the Department of Streets and Sanitation boasts that its “Graffiti Blasters” program has cleaned more than 220,000 sites in four years. Separate endeavors by the Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Park District and Cook County Sheriff’s Department augment the program.

Previously, Streets and Sanitation only removed graffiti from infrastructure and other public property. This fell far short of eradicating the problem, though, as private owners either were fearful of removing graffiti or could not afford to keep up with its constant reappearance.

That changed when Mayor Richard Daley’s administration launched Graffiti Blasters in April 1993 with a budget of $3.5 million. The city acquired 25 truck-mounted soda machines, which resemble sandblasters but use baking soda. The machines, which fight graffiti on private and public property alike, use pressurized water and baking soda to scrub off graffiti, a method that is less corrosive than sandblasting or chemical solvents.

Chicago officials must deal with a type of graffiti endemic to the area: paintings high up on the sides of buildings in proximity to the city’s elevated train tracks. Unable to resist the guaranteed large audiences for their work, vandals risk electrocution by climbing up onto the tracks to do their painting during the hours when trains pass by at long intervals, says Levin of the Streets and Sanitation Department.

Scottie Pippen of the National Basketball Association’s Chicago Bulls has lent his celebrity to the Graffiti Blasters campaign by doing public service announcements and appearing in photographs as a spokesman against graffiti.

Pippen’s status as a role model for young males is bound to help in the fight against graffiti, since some of it originates with gangs or at-risk youth.

How much is uncertain, but according to the San Diego-based National Coalition for Graffiti Removal, only about 10 percent of graffiti is gang-related. Phoenix Police Sgt. Jeff Halstead says it is not always easy to tell whether gangs are involved. Gang graffiti often has “territorial ties,” he says, meaning it is only seen in certain sections of a city where a particular gang is present.

But because police in Phoenix have cracked down on gangs in recent years, gangsters there don’t flaunt their presence with graffiti as much as they did in the past.

The connection between urban gang subculture and graffiti was discussed in a dissertation by criminologist Victoria Wilson, community relations director with Philapride, a non-profit community service group in Philadelphia.

Wilson, one of the nation’s foremost experts on graffiti, says the problem plagues small towns as well as big cities, and the work of the “hip-hop” subculture is increasingly being reported in suburban areas.

She is quick to point out that graffiti vandals do not fit a standard profile. They are of different races, socioeconomic classes and ages. Indeed, some whom she has interviewed were as old as 50. In that light, some graffiti experts question the effectiveness of banning spray paint sales to minors.

Wilson says older graffiti vandals tend to be “piecers” (“piece” being short for masterpiece) who pride themselves on their artistic talents, while the younger ones are often “taggers,” whose graffiti is less structured and done more hastily.

The “piecers” can sometimes be steered into productive work that is sanctioned by the city, as with Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program.

There is widespread agreement that eliminating graffiti within 24 hours after it is placed is the most effective policy. As for progress against graffiti, it varies from city to city. “A lot of times, people don’t address the problem until something drastic happens like a drive-by shooting,” says Wilson.

While most graffiti vandals are not violent, incidents of graffiti-related violence have been on the rise in some West Coast cities. In Los Angeles recently, a policeman who confronted several gang members as they were spraypainting graffiti on a wall was shot in the face.

“Are we making positive strides? Yes,” Wilson says. But she cautions that as city ordinances, police crackdowns and community involvement make inroads against graffiti vandalism, the vandals, their tools and techniques continually evolve to circumvent the law.

To get around a ban on spray paint sales to minors, for example, teens have mail-ordered spray paint over the Internet. Shoe polish and felt marker pens are often used instead of paint, and letters or drawings scratched into glass windows have also become more common.

The fact is that despite all of the money and resources devoted to combating graffiti, it probably will never go away entirely.

After all, it has been with us since the Neanderthals drew on the walls of their caves. Ancient civilizations including the Egyptians, Greeks and Aztecs painted murals. And there will always be youngsters to replace those who have outgrown graffiti or been caught in the act.

For more information

There is no dearth of information for those who want to learn more about about graffiti trends and anti-graffiti initiatives.

The National Graffiti Information Network, which offers grants, a speaker’s bureau and a wide variety of resources, can be contacted at P.O. Box 400, Hurricane, UT 84737; (801) 635-0646.

GAIN, the Graffiti Abatement Institute of North America, can be reached toll-free at (888) 300-4246. The non-profit institute, which offers general information and technical assistance, plans to hold its first annual graffiti abatement conference in Phoenix, May 1-2. GAIN publishes a newsletter, Graffiti Reporter.

Another organization, the San Diego-based National Coalition for Graffiti Removal, emphasizes abatement, restitution and education in the war on graffiti. Its members come from education, business, government, and the general public. The coalition can be reached at (619) 296-8731.

The paint industry sponsors the Alexandria, Va.-based National Council to Prevent Delinquency, [(703) 751-9569], a lobbying and public service agency that works with local governments and retailers to prevent and eradicate graffiti.

The Anti-Graffiti News, a California-based newsletter published 11 times per year, can be reached at (818) 449-3676.

In addition, the World Wide Web is loaded with graffiti-related sites.

A keyword search including the name of a major city in quotation marks and “+” followed by “graffiti” or “anti-graffiti” pulls up a large number of web sites.

Surge suppressors are profit center for utility

Deregulation has already begun in the telecommunications industry and is soon to follow in the field of electric utilities.

Faced with the prospect of new competition and the threat of a declining customer base, the Leesburg, Fla., Electric Department decided to sell or lease ancillary products as a hedge against lost revenues.

It was apparent from the start that leasing or selling some type of surge suppressor might be the ideal way to accomplish that.

Violent lightning storms are a frequent threat in central Florida, where an estimated 25 million lightning flashes occur annually. The potential is great for fires or equipment damage caused by electrical surges.

Leesburg Electric chose to combat the potential with meter-based surge suppressors from Meter Treater, Lake Park, Fla. Installers plug the suppressor into the base of a meter and then plug the meter into the suppressor — primarily on homes and small office buildings.

The product is meant to complement plug-in surge suppressors by diminishing up to 97 percent of a surge. It can protect household electronic appliances, equipment and computers with short-circuit capacity up to 57,000 amps. A 92,000-volt, 57,000-amp pulse can be reduced to 1,500 volts and about 1,900 amps.

Prior to leasing the product, Leesburg conducted a pilot program by testing the product at the homes of its 17 department heads. The city also provided free installation in homes that had experienced damage from surges.

During the two-year test period, there were no reports of electrical damage from lightning or other sources.

Additionally, the city installed surge suppressors on 15 computerized traffic lights, in eight municipal buildings, on city wells and on lift and pump stations at the wastewater treatment plant.

To date, about 1,200 of the units are being used by both commercial and residential customers in Leesburg — about 8 percent of the utility’s 16,000 customers.

A homeowner can make sure the product is working by a simple visual test; meter readers also check the units during their regular monthly rounds.

The city buys the units for $80 apiece and spends about $20 for installation. It leases them to owners of homes and small businesses for $3.50 a month, meaning it takes two-and-a-half years for each unit to start turning a profit, says department superintendent Joseph Tardugno. Customers must commit to at least a one-year lease. “This year, we anticipate profits of more than $50,000,” says Tardugno.

During the spring lightning season, the utility sends out fliers to its customers, and also makes presentations to residents of mobile home parks, which have been particularly hard-hit by lightning damage.

The city hopes to get the state Insurance Commission to endorse premium reductions for lessors of the surge suppressor.