City Council President Gene Ricciardi stood fuming Wednesday in front of a brick building in the South Side that a private contractor had spent thousands of dollars to refurbish and turn into a commercial space.

It's covered in colorful graffiti. The owner, it appears, has thrown in the towel.

"It's a damn disgrace," Ricciardi said. "It looks like the developer gave up."

Alarmed by the persistence of so-called taggers and the perception that Pittsburgh has been soft on their spraypainted handiwork, Ricciardi plans to introduce a resolution at Tuesday's City Council meeting to create an anti-graffiti task force and a five-point plan to deal with what many describe as urban blight.

A story in Sunday's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review detailed graffiti being spread through the city by a growing group of taggers who move here to take advantage of what some contend is lax enforcement.

"The Trib did a great service to this city by running that piece," Ricciardi said. "It was a wake-up call that we're not being aggressive enough to the problem and that an anti-graffiti task force is a good way to come down hard on these vandals."

Ricciardi proposes a tough approach that many cities have long used successfully to deal with taggers. It includes computerized tracking, increased surveillance by police of graffiti hotspots and harsh penalties for taggers, including jail and community service.

He will also propose a fund to be bankrolled by the mayor's office that would financially reward informants who tip police to taggers and a graffiti-cleaning detail to be staffed by those caught painting.

"I see these kids as criminals," Ricciardi said. His own South Side house has been tagged, he said.

Reminded that the city is teetering on bankruptcy, Ricciardi was adamant that a "thoughtful and creative" approach could overcome the question of where the money would come from.

"We need partnerships to solve this," Ricciardi said.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has pledged his support.

"Steve has made a commitment to Gene Ricciardi to aggressively prosecute graffiti cases and has agreed to sit on the anti-graffiti task force," Zappala spokesman Mike Manko said.

Mayor Tom Murphy's office yesterday expressed surprise at Ricciardi's proposal.

"We don't know anything about it," Murphy spokesman Craig Kwiecinski said.

As it now stands, city police lack a graffiti abatement squad and rely instead on detectives operating out of the department's five zone stations to track the crimes. Graffiti falls under the criminal mischief law, a misdemeanor that does not differentiate between somebody breaking windows or painting them.

Ricciardi has focused his attention on graffiti before, with little success. He pushed for and won passage of a city law in 2003 to prohibit the sale of spray paint containers, indelible markers and etching products to minors. In June, City Council approved a second law sponsored by Ricciardi to outline for merchants their responsibilities in curbing graffiti.

This time, though, he says enough is enough.

"Graffiti is giving Pittsburgh this blighted image," he said.

South Side resident Ray Thompson, who has seen his work truck repeatedly painted by taggers operating in his neighborhood, stopped by the defaced brick building at Crosman and South 18th streets for a quick hello to Ricciardi yesterday and to offer his suggestions to take back Pittsburgh from taggers.

"We need to have the kids caught doing it clean it up," he said. "The city just can't continue focusing on Mook."

Thompson was referring to local graffiti legend Mike "Mook" Monack, who bedeviled city authorities during a four-year spray paint campaign that ended in 2001. The police and intense media scrutiny eventually put Mook out of business.

Another resident, Dan Bevan, stood looking at the colorful graffiti tags adorning the front, back and sides of the brick building and shook his head in disgust.

"The city should show no (leniency to) these kids, " he said. "This stuff is costing thousands of dollars to clean up."

 

Richard Byrne Reilly can be reached at rreilly@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5625.