Graffiti Busters

Graffiti Busters Program Smashes Record For Cleaned Sites
July 2, 2008 · : Kathee Austin is principal in a number of successful investment, marketing, media, publishing and technology related businesses in Arizona. With a passion to support the communities in which she lives and works, serving as Editor and Publisher of EVLiving.com offers her an outlet to interact regularly with the local business and residential community as well as with website visitors from around the world. Kathee is easily reached on any matter related to EVLiving. Call her office at 480.998.0246.See Authors Posts (176)
The city of Phoenix Graffiti Busters cleaned a record high 95,000 graffiti sites for the 2007-08 fiscal year, a 50 percent increase over last year’s record of 63,000 sites.
Representatives from the Neighborhood Services Department, which oversees the Graffiti Busters program, attribute the increase to efficiency improvements.’
One efficiency effort included adding paint-matching equipment on maintenance trucks, allowing Graffiti Busters to color-match paint on the spot in neighborhoods rather than return to the warehouse and color-match the paint there.
“We’re stepping up our war against graffiti on many different fronts,” said Jerome Miller, Neighborhood Services director. “But we need more neighborhood groups and businesses to step up to the plate and help us clean graffiti as well.”
Graffiti Busters has a free, tool-lending program in which neighborhood groups and businesses are provided with free paint, tools and training to clean graffiti in their areas. See the fact sheet below for additional information about graffiti.
Graffiti FactsThrough its Graffiti Busters program, the Neighborhood Services Department has 14 full-time employees working seven days a week in 10-hour shifts to clean graffiti throughout the city.
The Graffiti Busters program costs taxpayers $2.3 million annually. Citywide, department representatives estimate that more than $6 million is spent to clean graffiti on behalf of other city departments, local utilities and other governmental entities.
NSD has installed more than 50 flash cameras throughout the city in heavily tagged areas in an attempt to photograph graffiti vandals in action.
The Phoenix Police Department has three, full-time detectives assigned to identify, apprehend and help prosecute graffiti vandals. Police arrest an average of 40 graffiti vandals each month.
Under a new state law, juveniles convicted for graffiti are now fined between $300 and $1,000, plus pay an 80 percent surcharge for court costs. This translates into a minimum fine of $540 and a maximum fine of $1,800.
Approximately $200,000 has been handed out in graffiti reward funds since the program was established in 1995.
Dan Grubb Ford joined forces with the Graffiti Busters program, employing a full-time staff member who cleans tagged sites in the Maryvale area. NSD provides the paint and paint-sprayer to Dan Grubb.
Graffiti Busters has a free, tool-lending program that provides free paint, tools and training to neighborhood groups, schools and businesses interested in cleaning graffiti in their areas. For more information, call 602-495-0323.
Real estate officials indicate that neighborhoods tagged with graffiti see property values drop by as much as 15 percent.
Among Phoenix residents who have joined the city’s graffiti-busting efforts are a 76-year-old senior in Maryvale and a 15-year-old in central/east Phoenix.
Several local Eagle Scout troops routinely conduct graffiti cleanups.
If residents see a graffiti vandal in action, they are urged to call 9-1-1.

Mural a counter to Graffiti

Student-painted mural a counter to graffiti
David MadridThe Arizona RepublicMay. 28, 2008 12:00 AM
It is just a block fence in an Avondale alley, but the bright and colorful artwork now covering the wall provides several benefits, say the artists who participated in the project.They believe it could prevent taggers from targeting the wall. It also allowed students of Avondale's Estrella High School to participate in a project that beautifies the property near the school.Students Violet Mendez, 16, and Michelle Brito, 18, said the project demonstrated that aspiring artists could use their talents without resorting to illegal graffiti.

"If they had a chance to draw on a wall like this, where they were allowed to, I think they would," Mendez said.Bryan Kilgore, 32, a teacher at Canyon Breeze Elementary School in Avondale, designed the 30-foot mural.Painted on a fence north of Estrella High School, the mural depicts a variety of musical instruments. Kilgore, 12 students and art teacher Margaret Lieu painted the mural."This is a true community effort to combat ongoing graffiti and tagging in our neighborhood using public art," said Bernadette Mills, assistant director of the West Valley Arts Council. Avondale, Estrella High School students, Art League West and Dunn-Edwards Paints collaborated on the project. The block wall was primed and painted by Avondale, while Dunn-Edwards in Goodyear donated all the paint and supplies.Kilgore said he hopes students will take away a love of art and of being a positive force in the community.The students said they would like to see other walls opened up to student artists."It would be something positive," Mendez said. "They would get better at it, and they would be able to get their energy out that way.""Students, young adults and parents," Kilgore said, "get to see individuals paint on a wall legally to uplift and build a community rather than seeing people do it illegally." He believes murals painted on walls prevent illegal graffiti. It has worked in Los Angeles, he said.

Avondale Suffering a Surge of Graffiti

Avondale suffering a surge of graffiti
David MadridThe Arizona Republic
Mar. 28, 2008 10:39 PM

Avondale is suffering a surge of graffiti that is frustrating officials and threatening to damage economic development and revitalization efforts."I drive around the city a couple of times a week," Vice Mayor Ken Weise said. "To say that graffiti has increased is an understatement. It has exploded."The southwest Valley city is in the midst of efforts to revitalize its Old Town and create a City Center, which is city leaders' vision of Avondale Boulevard as a premier pedestrian-friendly destination for shopping, restaurants, entertainment with hotels, upscale housing and office space.
Avondale's population has more than doubled since 2000, hitting the 75,000 mark in 2006, according to census figures. Keeping up with the city's rapid growth - and the massive increase in graffiti - hasn't been an easy task. Homeowners and business owners have criticized a lack of action connected to the graffiti hotline, which until recently was run by a part-time employee. Avondale officials are trying to address the issue head-on, enforcing new laws aimed at curbing graffiti, launching a volunteer program to paint over graffiti, and making arrests."I'm so frustrated, not only with the graffiti, but more importantly by the lack of attention that the City Council has given, especially the mayor," resident Mike Barbetta said.He said he and his neighbors bought paint and battle graffiti in their neighborhood themselves, which has helped reduce the tagging.Barbetta has moved his auto-wholesale business and is preparing to sell his Avondale home and take his other home-based business with him. Some already have left, resident Lisa Amos said."You've got a lot of people really upset," Amos told the council recently. "I've had a couple of neighbors move because of quality-of-life issues. We don't think it's Scottsdale. We didn't expect it to be. But before we get all the new great stuff, we have to keep control of the stuff that already exists."Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers advised getting the Youth Advisory Commission involved and trying to get at the graffiti through those who know something about the youth painting up the city. Weise said there aren't enough people devoted to graffiti abatement. "You are in a boat that is taking on water, and we need to get you a patch," Weise told code-enforcement officials in the council meeting.But the city vows to meet the challenge.City workers in the field are armed with paint and graffiti-removal solvents to attack graffiti on signs and light poles.Meanwhile, code enforcement is educating businesses about their responsibilities. It is illegal in the city for minors to buy spray paint, liquid paint and wide-tip markers. In November, Avondale joined the West Valley cities of Glendale, Goodyear, Tolleson and Litchfield Park in requiring retailers to lock up graffiti implements.Code-enforcement officers are visiting Avondale businesses that sell paint and informing them of the ordinance, said Pier Simeri, a city spokeswoman.The council also wants to reduce the time businesses get to respond to graffiti complaints to 48 hours, from the current 30 days. Tips from residents last week led to the arrest of four juveniles on suspicion of graffiti and other charges.

Graffiti on the rise in Ahwatukee

Graffiti on the rise in Ahwatukee
Colleen SparksThe Arizona RepublicFeb. 15, 2008 08:38 AM
Incidents of graffiti are on the rise in Ahwatukee, and Phoenix officials are putting storeowners on notice: Selling spray paint, fat markers, etching solutions and other tools that can create graffiti to anyone under 18 in the city is illegal. Some Ahwatukee retailers say they are doing their part to ensure minors aren't buying the prohibited supplies, but some are doubtful it'll stop graffiti. Graffiti Busters, a city program, cleaned up 176 graffiti sites in Ahwatukee between July 1, 2007 and Jan. 31 of this year, Neighborhood Services Deputy Director Tim Boling said. That's a 38 percent increase from the same time period a year prior, and that doesn't include graffiti that individual property owners or other groups might have cleaned.
The program costs Phoenix taxpayers about $2.3 million a year, according to the city.The city sent letters to businesses throughout Phoenix last month reminding them of the law restricting sales to juveniles. Businesses also must store those items in a way that requires an employee's assistance to access them. Foothills ACE Hardware & Rental storeowner Kevin Cash said his store on Chandler Boulevard near Desert Foothills Parkway keeps spray paint locked up and requires cashiers to check customers' ID. But Cash said he is not sure "that we've ever stopped anyone from graffiti with our actions.""They're going to get it," he said. "It's like booze. They're going to steal it out of someone's garage. If they can't use spray paint, they'll use regular liquid paint. Police enforcement is the best bet."The city sends the reminder letter to stores annually and city staff inspects businesses monthly to make sure they are complying, Boling said. Most retailers are good about complying and if they don't they are fined."They need to be responsible retailers," he said. "It's not just a petty, victimless crime. It . . . leads to drug dealing, theft, auto theft. If there's graffiti in your neighborhood it decreases the property values by 15 percent."Checker Auto Parts at Chandler Boulevard near 44th Street also keeps spray paint locked up, and a prompt on the computer tells employees to check customers' ID, manager on duty Chris Murray said.But Murray said he believes youths could ask their parents to buy it for them and then spray graffiti. AutoZone store manager Charles Laursen said the Chandler Boulevard store near 46th Street is in "a pretty low theft area." The store checks customers' ID if they buy spray paint or etching solutions. "As long as people actually check the ID . . . I think it does help," Laursen said. "As soon as they turn 18, it's whatever they're going to do."In the Foothills, graffiti was spotted on walls in a park west of Desert Foothills Parkway and north of Pecos Road in November and again in December, Foothills HOA board Vice President Chad Blostone said. An SRP station near the park also was spray-painted a few months ago, and a drainage pipe south of Kyrene Altadeña Middle School on Desert Foothills Parkway was hit recently, Blostone said.Usually the HOA's handyman paints over small graffiti spots to match the HOA's colors, he said. Blostone said reminding the businesses not to sell the products to minors is "a good balance between trying to reduce that cost to the community and making it a little more difficult for individuals under 18 to buy the products."It usually costs the Foothills HOA about $65 to clean up a graffiti site, he said.

comments posted

Posted Feb-1510:08 AM
Oh not in the East Valley! I thought thugs and low life's were only in the West Valley. Oh wait, crime happens everwhere, crazy.
NaranjeroDos

Posted Feb-1510:30 AM
"But Murray said he believes youths could ask their parents to buy it for them and then spray graffiti." Then the parents should be held responsible.
d1010k
Posted Feb-1510:38 AM
Where is the parental guidance? Of course, here in Ahwatukee, a lot of parents way of spending time with their kids is handing them $20.00 and dropping them off at the movie theaters on Ray Road--don't belive me? Stop in and take a peek tonite..
dgr
Posted Feb-1510:53 AM
graffiti is on the rise everywhere. under the cover of darkness these cowards (cowards because they sneak around destroying property that is not theirs) mark things up. And like cowards, or cockroaches, they scatter as soon as any light is shown on them. The folks in Goodyear have the same growing problem.... Is it imported from the west?
dkmacs06
Posted Feb-1511:06 AM
I hate to say it, but the kids are getting it from the media. Watch prime time shows as well as commercials and see how many advocate graffiti throughout the city. If you watch closely at the commercials for M & M’s, McDonalds’ as well as the Disney channel, they almost condone this type of behavior. Just watch MTV and watch how many music videos use graffiti in their songs. Unless the city leaders want to shell out millions of dollars to clean up the sites, I suggest they instill this into the kids that this is not acceptable. I think the only to handle it is to have proactive graffiti patrols that clean up the sites as soon as it is tagged, that the kids are wasting their time and money. Basically, they would need 24 hour patrol coverage of paint trucks going around different areas. Of course this would cost the taxpayers lots of money, but it might work.

Posted Feb-1512:31 PM
Nasty degenerate hip hop non-culture has finally made it to Ahwatukee. The first drive by shooting is not far away.

Posted Feb-152:02 PM
How about we enact penalties that actually deter graffiti rather than send kids to some "diversion" class where they can hang around with other flunkies and laugh about their exploits. Why don't we do what Linda Gray wants to do with DUI law. She proposes to toughen the law until there is not one traffic death resulting from DUI. But seriously, let's make the punishment harsh enough that these "tagger"m (inappropriate term) tell their friends that it's not a good idea.
Posted Feb-155:42 PM
CWAZ said it best.. What would you rather have some simple Graffiti on some walls, or kids cruising around popping off their dad's gun? You tell me? cause if it were my decision I will take the Graffiti any day..