New Anti-Graffiti Efforts in Tucson
Sep 12, 2006 05:40 PM PDT
New Anti-Graffiti Efforts in Tucson

By Teresa Jun, KOLD News 13

The city of Tucson gets tough on graffiti. The city's Department of Neighborhood Resources is stepping up its new graffiti abatement program.

The department announced to council members Tuesday, their stepped-up plans for wiping out local graffiti.

The new approach includes education and prevention programs, as well as stronger enforcement and prosecution.

Also, the city will speed up graffiti removal with the hiring of a new contracted company, Graffiti Protective Coatings.

"What I can tell you is, say in Long Beach, California, they're able to do with a one-man crew, what the city's doing with 30 people," said Eliseo Garza, director of the city of Tucson's Department of Neighborhood Resources.

As for education efforts, the city wants to ingrain in school children, that graffiti is vandalism, not art. As for enforcement, the city is working closely with the Tucson police department to catch the culprits responsible for graffiti.

"It was a one-dimensional approach before," Garza said. "It was just removal, and so (now) we wanted to expand that approach and introduce these other two elements."

It's not clear yet how much the new program will cost. But Garza is confident the investment will pay off.

"I think the return we'll get on this is, a community that is graffiti-free."

The new graffiti removal will take effect later this month.