Downtown's chief graffiti opponent says a trend is taking the spray-painted blight to dangerous new levels. Derek Manaigre, maintenance co-ordinator for the Downtown Business Improvement Zone, says his crew's latest struggle is with paint sprayed "in places hard for us to get to" -- on overpasses and near the highest reaches of buildings.
"We're talking about rooftops as high as you can go," Manaigre said. "And hanging off the sides of bridges. They'll grab a guy by the legs and let him hang down and spray something. If they're doing it that way, it's pretty hard for us to do the same thing."
'CRAZY BUGGERS'
The top of a St. Boniface water tower, he added, was repeatedly spray-painted last year, despite it standing tens of metres high.
"They do it at night too, so they can't see what they're doing," Manaigre said. "They're crazy buggers, there's no doubt about it."
It's the latest challenge for the Downtown BIZ as it enters its second summer with a full-time maintenance crew. Manaigre and nine workers are striving to clamp down on taggers already hitting dozens of buildings per night as winter fades away.
The BIZ work is partly funded by city hall, which has its own employees sand-blasting, pressure-washing and using chemical removals as year-round efforts are stepped up during the summer.
Kildonan Custom Upholstery owner Joe Cembruch said he knows his Watt Avenue business will be covered in ugly graffiti by July.
"Now that it's getting warmer I'm going to expect it on every square inch of the building," he said.
Cembruch said he's been hit by taggers so many times he's stopped trying to combat it. It's been said taggers will respect another artist's work and won't paint over it, but that hasn't been the case for Cembruch, who had a mural painted on his wall.
"It's very nice, expensive. They went and put a moustache on the upholsterer and scratched out the dog's eyes," Cembruch said of his mural. "I don't understand it, I don't see what they get out of it. I guess you have to be a bit of a simpleton to do it."