Owners may be forced to clean graffiti in Brockton

By Jennifer Kovalich, ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
ROCKTON — Looking to spruce up its image, the city may require private properties owners to remove graffiti from their buildings.

“It's a quality of life issue,” said Ward 2 Councilor Michael Brady. “People coming to the city want it to be clean.”

Earlier this year when the historic Little Red School House, Cosgrove pool and Montello T station were defaced by graffiti, they were cleaned up quickly once the crime was discovered.

While laws are in place to deal with graffiti artists, nothing on the books spells out how the city can require private property owners to clean up the vandalism.

“You want the city clean and you want graffiti to be taken down as quickly as possible,” Brady said.

On Sept. 18, Tom Washington, deputy director of individual programs at MainSpring House; his daughter, Janet Washington, who has done a report at Massasoit Community College on graffiti removal; and Denise O'Malley, who has avidly worked to combat graffiti for numerous years, are expected to address the Finance Committee on the issue.

“If you look at some of the graffiti, it almost looks like artistic expression,” O'Malley said Friday.

But, she said, it is also tied to youth violence, and can be a way to send coded messages.

“Most people have no clue what it means,” O'Malley said.

In December, the Boston City Council passed a graffiti ordinance that holds property owners accountable for removing any graffiti defacing their building. Something similar could be potentially adopted here.

Brady and O'Malley said through the Work Express program at the MainSpring House, a crew of workers, who already have equipment, are available to clean graffiti around the city.

An ordinance here could propose to potentially charge private property owners a $20 fee to have their graffiti removed by the Work Express crew. That figure is not etched in stone.

“We want to be very reasonable. We don't want to punish the victim,” O'Malley said. “We're very sensitive that private owners didn't do anything and are a victim of a crime.”

O'Malley wages her anti-graffiti campaign in honor of her family, including her late brother, former Plymouth County District Attorney Bill O'Malley, and children she works with, she said.

Brady said the potential $20 fee is “reasonable” and something he would support.

He said private property owners may not be aware of Work Express as a resource to remove graffiti and said alerting them to it could help solve the problem of getting it cleaned up more quickly.

O'Malley said the city has received some funding for graffiti removal and wants to see more people get on board to work on the issue of quicker cleanup.

“It's like a turf war and it escalates,” she said. “The longer it stays, the more graffiti is added to it.”

She is optimistic that the proposal will be supported by city politicians.

“We want to be fair to all parties involved,” O'Malley said.