Graffiti wars

I saw a really cheesy, albeit informative video from the San Francisco Public Works about the enormous graffiti problem that our city faces. As a Richmond District resident, I’ve had to deal with tags left on the side of my building and garden fencing. Take a drive through our neighborhood and you’ll see storefronts, buildings and street level billboards laced with spray paint. Not my idea of neighborhood beautification.

According to the video, the city spent $22 million in 2007 on anti-graffiti measures, and that does not account for the dollars spent by businesses and homeowners to battle it.

What can be done? As a resident, the best defense against graffiti is to not tolerate it. As soon as you see some on your building, remove it or cover it up as quickly as possible. Literally on the same day if you can. The rush that taggers get from their sport is seeing their “art” displayed publicly (and illegally). So the sooner you can erase their creations, the faster they’ll get the message that your property is not a good place for them to do their damage.

As you can imagine there are lots of products out there to help with graffiti removal on all kinds of surfaces. I recommend stopping by your hardware store (I like the guys at Ace Hardware on Clement near 12th Ave.) for advice as different solutions may be needed for stucco vs. tile vs. glass etc.

If you see graffiti elsewhere, such as on a neighboring building or a business, try talking to your neighbors and encouraging them to remove it as quickly as possible. And while I always prefer the talking route first out of consideration, sometimes that doesn’t work or you may see graffiti on a billboard, in a park or on another structure where ownership is unclear. In that case, call 311 (or twitter them) on your phone and report the graffiti. They’ll officially notify the owner that it needs to be removed.

Sarah B.

Thanks to SFist for the video tip.