By Sara Brunetti
A wall of graffiti sticks out like a sore thumb from the historic elegance of the Dominion-Chalmers United Church on Cooper Street.
“We just get it cleaned up, then they do it again,” says Harold MacDonald, a long-time church member.
Graffiti is everywhere, an ongoing problem that is only getting worse throughout the city. It started as artwork under bridges and in back alleys and has transformed into widespread vandalism on city streets.
City officials are hoping an amalgamated Ottawa will be more successful in fighting to keep the streets safe from vandals that use paint as their weapon.
The city plans to pool their resources and information with police and groups like OC Transpo to make sure graffiti is removed quickly and that those who vandalize get caught.
Getting vandals off the street is important for private property owners like the Dominion-Chalmers United Church, which pays for hefty removal costs themselves.
Reverend Martin Garniss says covering it will cost up to $2,000— funds he would rather spend on church programs.
“Nobody likes to have their property damaged,” he says “and that’s all graffiti is.”
David Pepper, director of community development for the Ottawa Police Service, says incidents like the vandalism at the church are all too common.
“There’s too much of it,” says Pepper.
The police hand out various fines for destruction of property and being a public nuisance to vandals, depending on the severity of the offense. Still, Pepper says more is needed.
“We need a clear, coherent strategy across the city that sees the problem is not just removal,” he says. “There needs to be sustained effort between the public and private sector for removal, enforcement and education to solve this problem in the long term.”
Pepper says the problem of graffiti wasn’t addressed during amalgamation but plans for a new anti-graffiti program are already being developed.
It will start with a pamphlet due out this summer telling businesses and homeowners how to report and remove graffiti.
City officials hope the new program will reduce graffiti on public property because they’re responsible for removing it.
Gabriel Ahad of the city’s public works department calls removal a “pure waste of resources.”
He blames a few people for creating a big problem, taking away scarce public funds from more worthwhile maintenance, like road repair.
“Every time paint hits the wall you know who’s paying for it?” he says. “You, me, your neighbours, businesses everyone.”
The last big project against graffiti in the summer of 1999 was organized through the police’s Partnership in Action program and was based around community involvement.
Students spent months removing graffiti, officers did surveillance and businesses were educated on how to remove graffiti.
John Brownfield, a former graffiti artist, remembers the project and says something similar is needed immediately.
Now a 30-year-old computer graphics designer, he started painting large murals on the graffiti wall at Bronson and Slater in 1983.
He quit last year, calling the scene “a mess that buries the city” because 95 per cent of those involved are teenagers into “tagging” (putting their name or symbol all around town).
“Graffiti started as an art form, a positive part of the hip hop culture but now it’s nothing, just thugs destroying other people’s work and public property,” he says. “There’s no art in that, just disrespect.”