Tagged: Graffiti removal programs and three ways you can help

Graffiti breeds graffiti.

Which is why I found myself using a bit of elbow grease to scrub spray-painted scrawl off of a neighbor’s house and my own during a thaw this January. And the more I looked around the more it seemed that graffiti of every sort – from scrawl to elaborate tags – is surging.

Graffiti like all urban cycles comes in waves. And it does appear that Philly is experiencing an uptick in graffiti vandalism citywide, on properties as diverse as fireplugs in Fishtown, to roll-down security gates on Snyder Avenue, to Walnut Street cornice lines. The closer you look the more you see.

But is it the problem any worse than in recent memory? Yes and no. The amount of the city covered in graffiti is less than it was a decade ago. In part that’s because graffiti removal efforts have increased annually. The city’s Anti-Graffiti Network estimates its Graffiti Abatement Team has removed more than 1.4 million pieces of graffiti since 1995.

GRAFFITI REMOVAL in Center City and Neighborhoods

Last year crews from the Anti-Graffiti Network and Center City District removed approximately 128,000 pieces of graffiti from buildings and street fixtures. That seems like a lot, until you consider the sheer volume of tags and stickers that crop up every day across the city, and those that seem to linger for years at a time.

Since the mid-1990s the Center City District has removed an average of 300-500 pieces per year in Center City proper. Their crews focus only on the first floors of buildings, street poles, and signage within the district.

This year Center City District estimates its crews are removing an average of 12 tags per week, not including stickers or posters. In 2012 CCD removed 590 tags in Center City, up from 545 the year before.

“Sources of graffiti are very different. There is clearly a gang and drug related part of this, which is not as big in Center City,” said Paul Levy, President and CEO of Center City District. The bigger nuisance in his district? “The art students of Center City who should find better canvases,” Levy said, as well as promoters who hand out stickers, and people who draw on USPS mailing labels.

Two commonly hit objects that Center City District crews don’t maintain are newspaper honor boxes and BigBellie solar trashcans. They’re starting to take on cleaning BigBellies too even though they’re the responsibility of the Streets Department.

Beyond Center City, the Anti-Graffiti Network dispatches 24 field employees to remove graffiti in neighborhoods citywide. These crews are assigned by zip code and respond to graffiti removal requests that come in through the city’s 311 system.

“We average between 50 to 250 311 graffiti requests weekly,” said Deputy Managing Director Thomas Conway via email. 

The 19134 zip code – encompassing Port Richmond and part of Kensington – demands by far the most graffiti removal attention, and accounts for 18% of the city’s anti-graffiti work. Here’s a look at the 10 zip codes where the Anti-Graffiti Network was most active in FY2012:

City crews also assist the Center City District with graffiti complaints that are above the first floor.

“If the property is inaccessible or above the second/third stories, we will have a property maintenance violation issued to the property owner for them to remove graffiti from their property,” Conway explained.

Both Conway and Levy agree that speed and persistence are vital to the success of any graffiti-removal effort.

Back in the 1990s when Center City District started its graffiti-removal efforts they counted 5,000-7,000 pieces of graffiti.

“It looked overwhelming but what we’ve quickly realized is that it was years of buildup,” Levy recalled. So it was key to get rid of some of those layers, and work to get ahead of the problem.

“Back in the day when we first started, graffiti was on blocks at a time but now it is just more of tags on properties as opposed to blocks.” said Conway.

“Our experience has clearly been if you can take it off quickly you eliminate one of the major incentives for graffiti, which is visibility and notoriety,” Levy said.

And that’s something we all can help with.

Three ways to help keep graffiti at bay:

Report

Remove

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