The city of Columbus is working with non-profit organizations in its fight to abate the spread of graffiti.
In 2001, city officials created Columbus’ first graffiti-removal program spearheaded by the legislative efforts of Councilwoman Maryellen O’Shaughnessy. Keep Columbus Beautiful, a city program committed to the beautification of Columbus, and funded by the Columbus Division of Refuse Collection and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, was charged with the task.
Mike Pickard, KCB manager, said the program set aside $213,400 from its 2002 budget solely for graffiti removal.
The graffiti-removal program at KCB consists of a two-man crew trained in graffiti removal. The crew operates a vehicle equipped with a computerized paint matching system to cover graffiti if their baking soda blast equipment cannot remove it, Pickard said.
The team patrols the city on their own accord in addition to responding to citizen complaints about graffiti on public property — including underpasses, overpasses and bridges on state routes. Interstate graffiti is handled by the Ohio Department of Transportation, he said.
“We try to get to it within 48 hours,” he said. “We try to remove it. If we can’t, we just paint the whole wall.”
Graffiti was removed from more than 600 public sites last year by KCB, he said.
The Columbus Compact Corporation is a nonprofit organization whose main goal is to improve the quality of life in Columbus’ urban neighborhoods.
In 1999, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development recommended that Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati receive $10 million per year each for 10 years beginning in 1999 to aid urban development.
The CCC governs the city’s use of that money of which a “small portion” is allotted for graffiti removal.
Private businesses and residents can apply for assistance from CCC to remove graffiti.
“Someone calls to complain, we send someone out and make an assessment and then a contractor is contacted (to remove graffiti),” said George Tabit, economic development manager of CCC.
However, Tabit said CCC rarely receives the annual $10 million recommended allotment, and future funding looks bleak because the government will probably use the money on “other national interests” because of the sluggish economy.
Another anti-graffiti program goes directly after the vandals.
The Community Crime Patrol has been fighting crime on Columbus’ streets for 12 years.
It receives operating expenses from Ohio State, the city of Columbus and private donations.
The patrollers of CCP are paid citizens who are mostly recruited from the OSU student body, said Kevin Petrey, assistant director of CCP. They call the police if they witness a crime and contact code enforcement if a city code has been violated.
Their beat excludes university property.
“With graffiti, if we know an area is getting hit, we’ll set up on it and hope to catch the individual in the process,” Petrey said. “The police usually respond within 30 seconds to a criminal offense.”
Petrey said CCP has helped to apprehend graffitists in the past, but he is not sure of the total number of arrests because CCP does not keep specific records on graffiti cases.
Graffitists usually strike between two and four in the morning and often deface the property of owners who allow graffiti to accumulate for long periods of time, he said. Vandals are often deterred from leaving their tag if they know it will be promptly removed.
He said apathetic landlords only add to the problem.
“Absentee landlords leave graffiti on their campus houses because they either don’t know about it or they don’t care,” he said. “It’s not cost effective to cover it.”
In his State of the City address presented on Feb. 13, Mayor Mike Coleman said, “The city is now in a position to do more to get rid of the eyesores and fight the neglect of landlords who fail to take care of the properties they own. If you are one of these landlords, you can run, but you can’t hide from the city of Columbus.”
The mayor’s office did not return calls made by The Lantern to gauge the progress of City Hall’s fight against the buildup of graffiti allowed by absentee landlords.
