One of the most annoying and costly problems that businesses and homeowners face in the Richmond District is graffiti.
The city of San Francisco knows this problem all too well. The Department of Public Works (DPW) plans to spend $3.6 million removing graffiti in the city this year and notifying property owners to do the same. The city’s 311 service center has already received 25,857 graffiti-related service requests during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
Recently, the DPW kicked off two new programs that call on the community to help combat the growing graffiti problem.
Graffiti Watch
The first is a new program called Graffiti Watch, which encourages residents to take ownership of a heavily-tagged four-block area in their neighborhood and remove graffiti from public property such as utility poles, mailboxes, trash receptacles and other street furniture. In return, the DPW provides training and tools.
Any police officer or DPW official will tell you that the best way to prevent future graffiti vandalism is to remove it within 24 hours. The faster graffiti tags are painted over, the less likely it is that the vandals will return. The Graffiti Watch program calls on local residents to be the eyes and ears in graffiti prevention and arms them with the tools to remove it as early as possible.
To become a member of the Graffiti Watch, download and complete the application or visit the website for more information.
And if adopting a four block area sounds like too big a commitment, you can also join the Adopt-a-Street program to receive free graffiti supplies.
Graffiti Rewards
If being a mindful citizen sounds good, but you need a little more incentive, how does $250 cash sound? That’s what the city will pay as part of their new Graffiti Rewards Fund, which offers cash rewards to good Samaritans who report graffiti crimes and work with police and the District Attorney to convict vandals.
“On behalf of the City, I thank those who take the time and effort to report graffiti vandalism,” said Mayor Newsom. “Engaging residents is our best defense against graffiti vandalism, keeps our city beautiful, and allows us to spend much needed city resources elsewhere.”
To be eligible for a Graffiti Reward, participants must file a police report, provide information that leads to an arrest and cooperate with law enforcement during the investigation and any trial proceedings. The program is retroactive back to crimes reported on or after February 22, 2008.
For more information on who’s eligible for a Graffiti reward and how to apply, visit the Graffiti Rewards website.
Sarah B.
Wonder what the official policy is on the OB seawall?
Great question, Hugh. Going to check in with the DPW on that. Maybe it’s not city property technically? I’ll let you know what I find out.
Sarah B.
What’s the official policy on plumbers’ vans?
Hi Ben,
There is a program the DPW runs to help remove graffiti from commercial vehicles. You can find out more here:
http://sfdpw.org/index.aspx?page=1234
Sarah B.
Hi Hugh,
Took a LONG time but finally got an answer about the Ocean Beach wall:
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Hi Sarah,
Thanks for the question. Our policy, like the city’s, is to paint over
grafitti. Because the O’Shaughnessy Seawal is managed by the GGNRA, it is
not included in the city’s program. To the city’s credit, they paint the
wall on occasion, but with their declining budgets, those efforts have been
decreasing.
GGNRA has its own Grafitti Task Force, funded by our Cultural Resources
Division. This program focuses its efforts on removing grafitti from the
historic seacoast fortifications throughout the park, but will paint the
wall once these sites have been cleaned. That said, even when we have
enough time and volunteers, the expense is prohibitive: we pay $2000-3000
worth of paint every time we paint the 1/3 mile of wall, and grafitti is
back within a few weeks. Unfortunately, the seawall is particularly
attractive to taggers because there are no lights on the beach and taggers
can’t be seen from the street or parking lots.
We are looking into alternative ideas on how to combat grafitti, and if you
or your readers have any, we’d love to hear them.
Thanks for helping look after the park,
George Durgerian
Park Ranger, GGNRA: Ocean District