Fighting Graffiti
Friday, January 4, 2008

Graffiti has been a longstanding problem in Winston-Salem, so it’s good that city officials are once again tackling it. They’re right to be starting a new program that helps some residential property owners with the cleanup costs of graffiti. But commercial property owners aren’t eligible for that financial assistance, and officials should proceed carefully as they consider a new law that would force owners to clean up graffiti on their buildings.

There’s no question that all the graffiti, whether on residential or commercial buildings, should be erased. The spray-painted symbols, words and pictures give thugs the idea that nobody cares and it’s OK to do as they please. The majority of graffiti damage is probably done by individuals, but some of it may be done by gangs.

The big question is who pays for the cleanup.

Federal money pays for the new program for residential property owners and landlords in certain poor neighborhoods, Bertrand M. Gutierrez reported last week. A person who owns and lives in a house can have as much as $25 a gallon reimbursed, up to a total of $500, for painting exterior surfaces that have been marked with graffiti. Owners who rent residential properties may also be eligible. It’s obviously not a lot of money, but it’s a needed help.

“Neighborhoods with dwellings covered with graffiti tend to send a message that neighborhood residents do not care about their surroundings … and in some instances have allowed gangs to infiltrate the community,” Ritchie Brooks, the city’s director of housing and neighborhood services, wrote in a memo about the problem.

The problem of graffiti is even more glaring in downtown commercial areas. Winston-Salem doesn’t have the problem with graffiti that some other cities have, but it has its share. The city has long held that commercial property owners are responsible for paying for the costs of cleaning up their own graffiti. Too often, the graffiti stays on buildings for months, or, in some cases, doesn’t get cleaned up at all.

But some commercial property owners have understandably balked at paying for a mess somebody else made on their turf. The vandals should clean up their own mess, but they aren’t caught often enough.

Consequently, city officials should try to find some money to help commercial property owners with cleanup costs.

And any new law requiring property owners to remove graffiti should give them a reasonable amount of time to do so. If they won’t clean the mess up, the law should give the city the right to do that and bill the property owners. Fines should be minimal. And officials should consider options such as having people doing community service help with cleanup. Whatever happens, the graffiti has to go.