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So, the City have decided that if you’re unfortunate enough to have your property tagged, you (the homeowner) have to clean it off or the City folks will do it for you and bill you for it.
—Basil Fawlty
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2009.
27 Comments
Wouldn’t you WANT to clean it off? Why should tax dollars pay to clean up YOUR property?
The legislation that allows the city to do this completely corrupt and unfair. It’s happening not only in the city, but in the suburbs as well, and it’s more likely to happen out there due to the lack of a proper policing force (the RCMP covers many of the areas and much too thinly). What’s really worrisome is that it happens to those who can’t afford to repaint and repair, and the city comes with Youth Live (also known as the young offenders recidivist recreation program) and bills you for the child labour. My mum had this done to her recently and the city cant do anything to the little shits who defaced her property, but the city sure as hell put lien on her property for the bill for the cleanup that she couldn’t afford.
What if I liked the way the tag accentuated my shutters and wanted to keep it?
Well then fizz, if somebody in your neighbourhood made a anonymous complaint to the bylaw enforcement office, you would have to have it cleaned off, regardless if you liked it or not. If it can be considered “unsightly” or “dangerous”, they’re on it.
What if I tagged my own house because I liked the way it accentuated my shutters?
Although I stand by my previous comments, I would like to add that I also don’t think anyone should be forced to pay for the clean up. The taxpayer surely shouldn’t foot the bill, but if the homeowner can’t afford to do it themselves, it’s unlikely they can afford to pay the city for it too. I don’t have a solution, but I don’t think the by-law is it.
Maybe communities that are most affected by this could work with local businesses to get discounts for the cleaning products or they could donate materials to a community group that would provide the labour. How much money are we really talking about to get rid of graffiti? Is it a matter of $20 for paint or cleaner or are we talking hundreds for a pressure wash service?
My mum was footed with a bill close to 2000 dollars, which also included a repair to a back step that the by-law officer required fixed due to it being old. The whole process is arbitrary, and completely indefensible.
Oh, they sandblasted and then repainted, when they could have just painted over it. Agian, this was done with city equipment (or at the very least, city leased equipment) and services were provided by the recidivist crew of Youth Live. So, technically, it went back into the city as Youth Live is a city program.
I said this before but you can get free paint at the recycle depot.
Graffiti here in HRM really isn’t that bad or much of a problem at all. I think Councillors just have a bit too much time on their hands.
Want to see a city where graffiti is a big problem (or not, depending on how you look at it)? Check out Melbourne, Australia. Fucking graffiti everywhere there! Some local politicians there consider it art and support it, and while some of it does indeed contain artistic elements, most of it is that shitty tagging crap. Seriously, it’s everywhere, especially along train lines and in alleyways. Google it.
Montreal as well
Melbourne’s still worse than Montreal: http://images-1.redbubble.net/img/art/size…
Italy had loads of graffiti when I was there, too. They’d tag David’s cock if they could.
Two words…
Mexico City.
This is why NGF owns a metal baseball bat and turpentine. I value the baseball bat more than the turpentine though.
Wow. I need to check out Melbourne sometime. Nice.
So, does the the city pay itself to have grafitti removed from city buildings? How does that work, exactly?
I think graffiti is a world wide issue that, like the marijuana law, is an unwinnable war – the only difference with our fine upstanding City Councillors and Mayor Bumble is that they want to be seen as doing something and so they take the path of least resistance and pass along the costs of being victimised back to the innocent homeowner.
Ah, the democratic process hard at work.
In Singapore the penalty for defacing property is a public caning. Surprisingly, the do not have much of a grafitti problem, proving the effectiveness of corporal punishment and public shaming.
When I lived in Bumfuck, NS (somewhere in the valley), the town decided they didn’t like the colour of the back of my parents’ shed. The shed DID need to be painted, but the siding on the back, despite the ugly ass colour, was fine and the town couldn’t do shit in that respect. They made them paint the rest of the shed (they were going to anyway), but they couldn’t make them paint the siding.
The reason for being so anal about the ugly ass colour on the back of the shed? Tim Hortons decided to build a franchise in my backyard (literally) and they didn’t want to “offend” the patrons. HAHAHA. They were so pissed that legally they couldn’t make my parents paint the back of the shed. And I mean it *was* ugly siding, but we couldn’t see it from the house/yard, and it was in good shape and provided great insulation, so we didn’t care. And the fact that my parents kept their house/yard immaculate made the harassment even more humourous.
All of this wouldn’t amuse me if this particular town wasn’t ran by a bunch of douchebags. I know this because I worked for them.
How about making the young offenders clean up that shit for FREE!!! Fuck sakes!
Buck— The punishment for everything in Singapore is a public caning.
Melbourne’s graffiti is intended more for art purposes than for turf wars and causing a general mess. It’s more accepted and actually part of the city’s culture.
That may be so…but that pic looked pretty rude.
Although Montreal is more than just street level:
http://gothamist.com/attachments/jen/2006_…
It’s considered “cultural” as well *gag*, I suppose it’s no surprise that Paris is bad as well…
Some of that is great stuff and not just messy half-assed obscenities and amateur tags. Alot of that takes talent and creativity.
meaning it takes practice… on how many peoples walls?
and they weren’t that good from the start… a while back they were just as crap as a monkey spray painting with his tail…
Dino, like I said, while a lot of the graffiti in Melbourne is kind of cool and artistic, there is still a lot more of it that is just messy and plain vandalism. It’s literally out of control in some parts. Most graffitied city I’ve ever been to. It’s interesting to see it along what would otherwise be pretty boring train rides, though.