Posted by
Playful Walrus on Monday, March 05, 2007 3:12:06 PM
The
Los Angeles Times ran
this uplifting piece on graffiti vandalism.In Los Angeles, cleanup crews removed 27 million square feet of graffiti last year, up from 21 million square feet in 2004, officials said. In other areas of Los Angeles County, 13 million square feet of walls and other surfaces were cleaned, up from 9 million the previous year, according to county public works records.
Those figures likely exclude at good chuck of private property, focusing mostly on public property.
Santa Clarita increased its cleanup efforts last fall in response to a surge in graffiti, while several Inland Empire communities have started offering rewards in hopes the public will turn taggers in. The city of Orange has seen a significant jump as well, with the cost of removing graffiti jumping nearly 40% over the last year, said Lyman Otley, Orange's building and facilities superintendent.
I think Singapore had the right idea about this sort of thing. But I don't think that is enough. I think shooting them if they are caught in the act will provide apt deterrent.
Governments responded by hiring crews to promptly paint over graffiti and boosting night police patrols. Caltrans placed barbed wire and barriers on freeway signs to deter taggers. Those efforts reduced tagging — for a while.
Yeah, we all have to look at barbed wire everywhere because of these hoodlums.
Many officials said the old way of fighting graffiti - quickly painting over it - is a failed strategy.
"The only result it has [is] if you get rid of graffiti right away, is you get rid of graffiti right away," Kephart said. "The tagger will say, 'What's the worry, nobody's tracking it, there's no intelligence and no one's coming after me.' It makes them bolder."
[SNIP]
With thousands of vehicles moving through the region every day, the MTA is hard-hit by graffiti. The agency's annual cleanup costs total $20 million.
Notice how prevalent graffiti is, even though the marking materials are restricted. But I'm sure gun control would work. Uh-huh.