T.J. Josefsson, a technician for Goodbye Graffiti, spends his days removing unwanted graffiti.
After spending thousands of dollars on renovations, Art Akarapanich awoke one morning to find the freshly painted walls of his Centretown restaurant covered with graffiti.
“I was so disappointed,” said Akarapanich, owner of Som Tum Thai Restaurant at the corner of Kent and Nepean streets. “I had a pretty much brand-new building that was ruined.”
Akarapanich says graffiti is a “big problem” in Centretown and wonders whether a new city initiative, in which community groups are being given graffiti removal kits, will deter graffiti “artists” from vandalizing public and private property.
The kits – containing graffiti-removal soap, gloves, goggles, scrubbers and safety vests – are being distributed to community groups, such as church associations and rotary clubs, as part of the city’s graffiti management strategy. In operation since 2003, the strategy is a partnership between the city’s surface operations branch, by-law and regulatory services branch, and the Ottawa Police Service.
The strategy has a $23-million budget and has resulted in the removal of more than 67,000 pieces of graffiti since 2004, according to the city. More than 26,000 pieces of graffiti were removed in 2007.
Ryan Cassels has been cleaning up Ottawa’s graffiti for the past three years as owner of Goodbye Graffiti, a graffiti removal company whose clients include the Preston Street and Byward Market business improvement areas. He says Ottawa’s graffiti problem is “out of control,” with Centretown and Barrhaven being two of most affected areas.
“The buildings we look after are getting hit more often this year even though we try to deter the perpetrators by cleaning up the graffiti right away,” said Cassels, adding that he cleans up over 100 pieces of graffiti per day.
While the city’s plan to distribute graffiti removal kits may be effective in principle, Cassels says encouraging community groups to clean up after the painting pests isn’t the safest or the most economical way to deal with the problem. Goodbye Graffiti employees must take a six-week training course before they can start removing graffiti.
“If you start putting graffiti removal products in the hands of people not wearing the proper equipment who don’t have an understanding of how to remove graffiti, there could be problems,” he said. “We’ve seen occasions where people think they’re helping out by trying to remove graffiti but they use the wrong chemicals and end up ruining the building.”
Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street BIA, says the graffiti removal kits are a great way to raise awareness and put some of the responsibility for keeping neighbourhoods clean in the hands of citizens.
“The more people we have focusing on this issue, whether its business owners or homeowners, the better chance we have to send the message out that graffiti is not acceptable,” Mellor said. “It’s not art, it’s vandalism.”
Last year, Little Italy had a severe graffiti problem so the Preston Street BIA paid $14,000 up-front to Goodbye Graffiti to remove the neighbourhood’s graffiti and treat the sides of buildings with a chemical that makes spray paint less adhesive. The company now patrols the area and removes any graffiti they find.
“The graffiti artists want to be seen and if their work keeps disappearing, the incentive is reduced,” said Ottawa Police Const. Walter Duhme.
Duhme is the former co-ordinator of the Orleans graffiti management strategy, a three-year pilot project than ran from 2005 to 2007. He says by approaching the graffiti problem in Orleans with the “4E” model – Eradication, Empowerment, Education and Enforcement – he recorded an 88 per cent reduction in visible graffiti in 2007.
Ottawa’s graffiti management program has adopted the same model based on Orleans’ success.
Duhme says the majority of graffiti perpetrators are young people who, if caught, can be charged criminally or fined upwards of $500 per offence.
On Saturday, the city is holding a symposium at Confederation High School to teach home and business owners about graffiti prevention and removal strategies.