As a member of the Mayor's graffiti task force, I would like to say that our
problems with graffiti vandalism have a lot to do an ineffective strategy and
lack of political will. I have devoted hundreds of hours to understanding the
structural problems in dealing with graffiti and to the culture of vandals
who believe spay painting their initials on some Mom and Pop store is an
important political statement.
I think there have been serious problems in developing a coherent plan. Right
now, the city does not have the ability or authority to remove graffiti from
private property or public right of ways. This is a big problem.
I want to be perfectly clear about saying there are cities that have
effective strategies and ours is not one. There are many reasons for this.
One of the reasons is that many folks are misled by pro graffiti propaganda.
"Graffiti has been around since the days of Rome." Have we always had a
problem of 4 million dollars of graffiti vandalism per year? No. Have we had
10 million dollars of graffiti damage in the past 3 years? I don't have
accurate figures, but I think so. Did we have a significant amount of
graffiti damage 5 years ago? No, nothing like we do now. Does graffiti
promote criminal activity and fear of crime? The research says yes. (
e.g.The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell)
An effective strategy involves the 3 E's of Education, Enforcement, and
Eradication. We have only the structure for one of the pieces in place now
and that piece has only been in place since April.
Sgt. Duncan, The new graffiti coordinator for the Police Dept., has put
together an enforcement strategy that will work if there is a removal
strategy and education about what the problem is and how to solve it.
But these pieces are not in place because thus far the Mayor and the council
cannot work together well enough to do so.
I was there when the council defunded the Park system almost one million
dollars that was supposed to be a compromise for not having a Park and Rec.
Board ballot referendum. I was there when the council backed out of an
agreement to fund a graffiti removal ordinance as part of the annual budget
process because the Mayor and the council could not work together well enough
to do so.
Thanks, Scott Vreeland, ward 2,
Seward
- Re: [Mpls] Mayor's Letter and graffiti Svattheriver
