Graffiti plan backed by businesses

UPDATED: 2006-10-13 18:05:41 MST

Core coping with costly cleanups

By SHAWN LOGAN, CALGARY SUN


Downtown merchants sick of cleaning up the work of graffiti vandals are welcoming calls from a city alderman to crack down on spray paint-armed miscreants that are causing millions in damage.

Ken Dixon, chairman of the Calgary Downtown Association, said with 3,800 businesses in the core coping with a major upswing in graffiti, anything to help curb the expensive trend would be appreciated.

“We have seen a significant increase in the amount of graffiti and the costs for that are high,” he said.

“We are in support of any anti-graffiti initiative.”

Ald. Craig Burrows will pitch a plan to city council on Monday to work with retailers to place spray paint and other items used by taggers under lock and key and prohibit their sale to anyone under 18.

If businesses aren’t prepared to get on board with the plan, Burrows said he may try to bring in a bylaw to enforce the measure.

Dixon said downtown merchants face the bulk of graffiti crime, spending around $6.5 million a year to deal with the problem, and are willing to back any “reasonable mechanism” to solve it.


Alvin Murray, the city’s bylaw operations manager, said the department went on a fact-finding mission earlier in the year, looking at similar measures adopted by the cities of New York and Phoenix, Arizona.

“Typically their stores kept all these products behind locked cages and only sold it to people over 18 — no different than for buying tobacco or alcohol,” he said.

“They have noticed a marked reduction in graffiti.”

In 2005 the city spent around $4 million on graffiti removal and have watched the problem get worse, particularly in the downtown core.