South Side group offers aid to erase graffiti

By Richard Byrne Reilly
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, September 19, 2006


A South Side business group is offering a helping hand to property owners who want to wipe out the graffiti plaguing their neighborhood.
The South Side Local Development Co. is offering to pay businesses and homeowners $250 to clean up graffiti tags. The group says the program, which began last week, is the first of its kind in Pittsburgh.

"The South Side has a pronounced challenge with graffiti," Executive Director Rick Belloli said. "It's a quality-of-life issue."

The East Carson Street Graffiti Removal Grant Program is the brainchild of Megan Stearman, the development company's manager of business development.

Stearman said she created a target list over the summer of properties with pronounced graffiti problems. The removal initiative was started via the company's electronic newsletter sent to 11,000 people and through personal phone calls by Stearman.

The development company set aside $2,500 to start the program, enough to clean up 10 properties. More could be added later, Belloli said. Money to pay for the cleanups comes from the development company's $750,000 operating budget.

The program is focused on graffiti tags painted or marked on building facades in hard-to-reach areas, sometimes two or three stories high.

"Vandals like to target areas with higher visibility," Belloli said.

To qualify for a graffiti-removal grant, a property owner is required to file a police report and fill out an application available at the development company's office at the corner of East Carson and 18th streets. Owners then hire a graffiti-removal company and are reimbursed $250, roughly half the cost of a typical cleanup.

On Sept. 30, the Pennsylvania Resources Council is sponsoring a graffiti survey on the South Side. Volunteers will be asked to chart areas with serious graffiti problems, coordinator Sarah Alessio said. The goal is to develop a monitoring and reporting mechanism for residents in order to get the upper hand against vandals, she said.

"We're hoping for a high turnout," Alessio said. "Our goal is to walk around and denote locations where we're seeing a lot of graffiti."

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