Page 1 of Report PB-01-14

TO: Development and Infrastructure Committee

FROM: Planning and Building

SUBJECT: Update on Graffiti Prevention and Abatement

Report Number: PB-01-14 Wards Affected: All

File Numbers: 110-04-1

Date to Committee: January 13, 2014 Date to Council: January 27, 2014

Recommendation:

For information only

Purpose:

Address other area of responsibility

The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the city’s approach to graffiti abatement and prevention.

Background:

Graffiti is an especially challenging problem for municipalities. It affects both public and private property and can negatively impact the character and reputation of a neighbourhood or community.

Graffiti is not just a word or symbol sprayed on a wall; it is an act of vandalism that can cost thousands of dollars a year to remove. If not removed immediately, it sends a message that the area is uninviting and potentially unsafe. When it is not dealt with promptly, graffiti can lead to more graffiti and can encourage other unwholesome or even illegal behaviour. If it remains uncontrolled graffiti can cause a cycle of fear and decay.

For these reasons it is important to act promptly and decisively to deal with graffiti. As a first step, it is important that people understand graffiti and that they know the best ways to control it.

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Discussion:

Most graffiti is the work of “taggers” and “writers”. Taggers engage in the most basic forms of graffiti, which generally involves a personal, stylized signature. Taggers are generally motivated to get their signature (or tag), “up” as many times as possible. In Burlington, tags are seldom gang related.

Writers are generally responsible for the more artistic forms of graffiti. Graffiti writers often work in small groups called crews and have been known to take significant risks for the purpose of displaying their “art” in highly visible spots.

Over the past few years staff have been working with Halton Region Police Services to prevent and control the spread of graffiti. Presentations have been made to residents by both the police and By-law Enforcement staff at town hall meetings. The most recent of these was in Ward 5 where residents were invited to learn more about the specifics of graffiti and what the Halton Regional Police Service and the City of Burlington are doing to address the issue.

Planning and Building staff, in cooperation with our Communications team, have developed a banner on our website at www.burlington.ca/graffiti, where residents can report graffiti to city staff, for investigation. A form has been developed for reporting graffiti to the authorities and can be accessed as follows:

• Graffiti Reporting Form

Reports of graffiti that is located on city property will lead to it being removed or painted over as quickly as possible. Graffiti that is reported on utilities (cable, phone, hydro) and Canada Post boxes will be forwarded to the appropriate agency responsible for the maintenance of these items.

Removal of graffiti on private property is the responsibility of the property owner. These are investigated and property owners will be informed of their responsibilities. As needed the City of Burlington Lot Maintenance By-law, By-law number 12-2011 will be enforced.

The following table indicates the number of complaints received by the Planning and Building Department from 2010- to August 2013.

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Planning and Building Department By-Law Enforcement Graffiti Complaint Statistics

Year Complaints Violations

2011 13 11

2012 47 22

2013 29 15

Total 89 48

The difference in the number of complaints received and violations recorded, indicates that when an officer visited the site, the graffiti was already removed, or in the process of being removed.

Strategy/Process

It has been found that delays in removing graffiti tend to encourage vandals to expand the graffiti onto adjacent properties. In this way, graffiti can act as a magnet and attract more graffiti to the area, making it important to address graffiti as quickly as possible.

This stop sign represents a prominent symbol on the city of Burlington web site emphasizing the need to “Stop Graffiti in Your Neighbourhood”

”.

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On the web site, staff offers the following advice:

To assist in preventing graffiti:

• Restrict access to walls by planting ivy, thorny bushes or trees • Apply graffiti-resistant coatings to protect walls • Increase lighting and visibility in vulnerable areas • Establish a strong Neighbourhood Watch or Business Watch program

If you witness a graffiti crime:

• Call the Halton Regional Police Service at 905-825-4777 • Submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) • Furthermore, there are a number of ways in which the city can assist a property

owner in removing graffiti. These include directing them to the various resources in the Region, for example;

Ø Home and yard maintenance and repair. Ø Links2Care, a nonprofit agency that arranges help for property owners,

based on sliding scale geared to income: o provides help both inside and outside of the home to seniors and

disabled persons. o jobs could include yard maintenance, snow shoveling, painting,

window washing, plumbing repairs, electrical repairs and seasonal housecleaning.

Ø 40 Hour Secondary Student Volunteer program offered through the Halton District School Board and the Halton District Catholic School board for those working toward their Secondary School Graduation diploma.

Ø Environmental Projects – includes participating in community clean-ups, flower/tree planting, recycling and general beautification projects and activities;

Ø For assistance in obtaining environmentally friendly graffiti removal services see “Building Cleaning –Exterior”, in your local telephone listings.

The following can be used as a guide to who is responsible for graffiti removal:

(1) Private property – e.g., homes, buildings, plazas, private yard fences, sheds, etc. –Planning and Building Department by-law Enforcement (by area)

(2) Transit shelters, transit benches etc. - Burlington Transit

(3) Arenas, Community Centres, Seniors Centre etc. – Parks & Recreation Dept.

(4) Playgrounds, roads, sidewalks, city owned trees, park benches, skateboard courts, concrete sound walls, bridges, etc. – Roads & Parks Maintenance Dept.

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(5) Traffic signs, traffic signal poles, traffic signal control cabinets, street light poles and related boxes – Roads & Parks Maintenance Dept.

(6) Canada Post mail boxes, Cogeco Cable TV boxes, Bell Canada boxes & structures, Region of Halton pump stations, Burlington Hydro boxes etc. – Responsibility of owner. Contact – Building Dept or RPM to contact them for removal.

All profane or racist graffiti brought to the attention of RPM Dept. on city property is removed immediately. Other non-offensive graffiti is generally removed same day or next.

Following is a summary of specific graffiti calls received at RPM and who they were directed to:

ITEM SPECIFIC LOCATION CONTACT

Bridges Spruce Ave. /Foxbar Rd.

Dryden Ave. (near parkette)

Dryden @ Pathfinder close to Orchard Road

Sheldon Creek on New Street

Shoreacres Creek on New Street

RPM

Catwalk / pathways

Between streets

HROW (Hydro-Right-of-Way)

RPM

Centennial Pool Robert Bateman High School Halton District School Board

905-335-3663

Decorative rocks in parks

RPM

Garbage cans RPM

Guard rails RPM

Fire hydrants Region of Halton

905-825-6000 x7664

CATCH BASIN COVER

RPM

Mailboxes Canada Post 1-800-

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267-1177

Park buildings Washrooms

Press box by Nelson ball diamonds

RPM

Park benches RPM

Playground equipment

RPM

Sidewalks RPM

Signage Parks

Traffic

RPM

Transit shelters or benches

Transit

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Canada Post Boxes

To illustrate the seriousness in which both the city and the police view graffiti, it did not take long for the police to make an arrest in a case of damage to a church in Burlington which included anti religion and profane writings on both the doors and the windows. Using social media, the police were able to make an arrest. A close partnership between the community, police, the city and other agencies will go a long way in both preventing and stopping the spread and proliferation of graffiti.

Other Municipalities

During our investigation of best practices in both preventing and controlling graffiti, staff found that most municipalities have staff who will remove graffiti from public property, but in most instances it is the homeowner’s responsibility to remove it from their property. The table below illustrates the similarities among surrounding municipalities and how graffiti is handled in each.

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Municipality By-law Removes graffiti on private property

Removes graffiti on City property

Additional Information

Burlington Lot Maintenance By-law and Property Standards By-law

No Yes

Oakville Property standards By-law 2007-100

No Yes – roads and parks look out for and reports graffiti. Once reported if it is on public property Oakville has a graffiti crew that will remedy the situation immediately.

Milton Clean Yard BY-LAW NO. 132-2012

No Yes

Halton Hills Property standards BY-LAW NO. 2008-0137

No Yes

Mississauga Property Standards By-law 654-98 15. GRAFFITI

No Yes - Graffiti on City property is removed by staff in accordance with the Graffiti Removal from City Property Policy 05-06-05. Offensive graffiti will be removed within 2 days and non

The city does not removed graffiti on private property but the by-law enforcement officer will assist the owner by arranging for a City’s contractor to remove the graffiti. In these instances, the property owner or the utility or

communications company will be

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offensive graffiti will be removed in 5 days

invoiced for the works

completed.

Some municipalities in the United States provide for graffiti removal for private property owners. The City of Long Beach, California, offers a free paint program in which an owner or occupant of private property located in the City of Long Beach is eligible to receive free paint for the purpose of painting over graffiti. In addition, Long Beach offers a graffiti removal program, in which licensed painting contractors or volunteers will remove the graffiti at no expense to the owner.

In staff’s research on best practices across North America and abroad, it appears that those municipalities that assist private property owners with graffiti removal devote significant resources to the problem, tend to be larger cities in terms of population and are generally responding to a much larger graffiti problem. In the example cited above, Long Beach has a population of 461,564 and is part of the Greater Las Angeles Region, where in the last fiscal year; a total of $7.1 million was spent on graffiti removal.

Chicago’s graffiti removal program uses "blast" trucks that use baking soda under high water pressure to remove painted graffiti from brick, stone and other surfaces. The program also deploys paint trucks to cover graffiti on surfaces such as metal or wood. This program depends on community groups, block clubs, chambers of commerce and individual residents to report graffiti and request a removal. The population of Chicago is 2,695,598 residents with an annual budget of $6.54 billion, and their budget for graffiti removal is in the millions of dollars.

City of Burlington staff do not recommend offering free paint or free removal of graffiti from private property. The City budget does not currently include resources for this level of service. In addition staff would need to investigate more carefully the potential for liability that may result from damage caused by cleanup or removal efforts. While graffiti is a problem in Burlington, at this point it is not experienced at the scale or magnitude that other municipalities are experiencing the problem.

In some municipalities throughout North America graffiti is experienced on a much larger scale than in Burlington. Tagging in these larger municipalities is very often related to gangs who use graffiti in the following ways:

§ Mark territory § Intimidate residents § Challenge other gangs § Provide responses to rival gangs § Attempt to display strength/status

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The graffiti pictures below show the difference in simple tag graffiti and gang graffiti:

Tagger Graffiti

Gang Graffiti

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Graffiti in Burlington is very rarely anything more than someone looking to show their “artistic” talent and seeking the “thrill” of vandalizing property, often with little prospect of getting caught.

Following are some of the activities we currently have underway and those that are proposed in the coming months:

Education:

• A high school liaison officer works with local boards of education

• Articles in the local newspaper

• Increase public awareness (e.g., posters) – see attached as Appendix “A”

• Developing a brochure for distribution to local businesses, residents and at local city kiosks

• Involvement with local groups, BIA’s, neighbourhood watch groups etc.

Engagement:

• Develop close working relationship with RPM to deal specifically with graffiti

• Encourage public assistance through timely reporting

• Use of Crime Stoppers

• Encourage calls to the Burlington By-Law Enforcement Office At 905-335-7731

• Utilization of volunteer community groups

• Encourage the public to actively participate (identification and revitalization of problem areas)

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Enforcement:

• Monitoring problem locations.

• Uniform police – foot patrols.

• Aggressively enforce by-laws with the police laying criminal charges where appropriate.

Staff are also investigating a by-law that would prohibit the sale of spray paint to minors, those under 18 years of age. This is used in many US communities who have sought more effective prevention by passing similar, local laws.

Financial Matters:

There are no immediate financial implications arising from this report. All recommended actions will be accommodated through our existing operating budget. Any future programs involving a higher level of service or enforcement will be reported to council through the budget process.

Environmental Matters:

As a secondary effect of graffiti, aerosol sprays often used by taggers contain CFC’s which are known to have negative impacts on the earth’s ozone layer. Other chemicals used in graffiti can impact runoff by spreading chemicals on the soil and into waterways and groundwater systems.

Public Engagement Matters:

Education is vital to effective graffiti prevention. Planning and Building Department staff will continue to work with the police in an effort to curb graffiti, but will also publish advertisements in the Burlington Post about reporting graffiti. Our website will continue to provide graffiti awareness banners and staff will be working with our communications adviser on developing a brochure for placement on our front counter and for distribution to the public.

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Conclusion:

Many of those who are involved in graffiti believe their actions harm no one. The reality is that graffiti hurts everyone: homeowners, communities, businesses, schools, and the public in general. Those who practise it often risk arrest. By educating the community at large on the consequences of graffiti, and how to properly address and report graffiti, it is possible to eliminate or at least reduce graffiti. In doing so the incentive to be involved in graffiti may also be reduced. City of Burlington staff recommend continued efforts to reduce the effects of graffiti and as much as possible, prevent its spread.

Respectfully submitted,

Tracey Burrows, Manager - By-law Enforcement & Licencing

335 7600 ext.7628

Notifications: (after Council decision)

Approved by:

Bruce Krushelnicki, Director of Planning and Building

Reviewed by:

Name: Mailing or E-mail Address:

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