Graffiti control pays off
Officials: Complaints are not as numerous

By Trevor Hughes
The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — An aggressive city-sponsored anti-graffiti program launched this summer appears to be working, with officials saying they’re seeing fewer tags and receiving fewer complaints from residents.

That doesn’t mean the amount of graffiti has declined — statistic show it’s still being reported pretty steadily — but it appears to bode well for the city’s efforts to make it less of a lingering blight on neighborhoods.

City leaders launched the anti-graffiti program this summer as part of a wider effort to combat gangs in the wake of the gang-related stabbing of Martin Garcia on April 15.

“Before the killing this summer, I couldn’t walk two blocks without seeing graffiti,” Councilman Doug Brown said. “Today, with the cooperation of the homeowners and businesses, as well as the diligence of the city staff, graffiti is not obvious, and it doesn’t last long before it is removed.”

The graffiti-control program has several components: increased monitoring by police and code-enforcement workers; an active graffiti-removal effort headed by a part-time worker; and even paint kits carried by city workers in their municipal vehicles. City workers also discussed the impact of graffiti with high school students, and the municipal court coordinated its efforts with the city.

The city’s control program is based on the theory that removing graffiti quickly helps prevent tagging wars between rival gangs or groups. Earlier this summer, neighborhoods without significant gang presence were suffering plagues of graffiti as dueling gangs painted over their enemies’ “tags” and replaced them with their own.

At the same time, the city’s law required property owners to clean up graffiti that they played no part in attracting or encouraging. As part of the graffiti-control program, the city changed the law to emphasize that cleanups were the responsibility of both the city and the property owner.

“Interestingly enough, when citizens are given the option of accepting city assistance or doing the work themselves, many choose to just do the work themselves,” city staff reported in a memo to the Longmont City Council. “This is a change from the previously punitive option the citizen was faced with, and they have responded by more often taking action themselves.”

However, no resident has sought a free paint voucher from the city, officials reported.

Officials expect the amount of graffiti around the city to drop during the winter, largely because fewer people are out. The schedule of city graffiti remover Leo Zavala is being dropped to 20 hours a week from December through March.

However, city staff are investigating ways to more effectively use surveillance cameras to monitor graffiti hot spots. The city today has three cameras, but they use 35mm film and aren’t as easy to set up and monitor as video cameras would be.

Brown said he’s pleased the city’s efforts appear to be paying off.

“In talking with government officials from other Front Range towns, many are struggling to get control of this issue and are not experiencing Longmont’s success,” he said.

Trevor Hughes can be reached at 303-684-5220, or by e-mail at thughes@times-call.com.