Daniel Nasaw
guardian.co.uk
Thursday 1 October 2009
Los Angeles home builders will be required to cover new houses graffiti-resistant finish or pledge to remove paint within a week, in the city's ongoing effort to combat vandalism.
Under an ordinance passed this week by the city council, the first nine feet of exterior walls of new buildings must either be built with graffiti-resistant surfaces such as ceramic tile or baked enamel or covered with a renewable coating of anti-graffiti finish. The ordinance allows owners to opt out by pledging to remove any graffiti within a week or within three days if ordered by city officials. Previously, the law exempted one- and two-family homes.
Like many cities across the world, Los Angeles is plagued with graffiti, from large, colourful murals to scrawled spray-painted tags. Areas of Los Angeles are overrun with gangs who use graffiti to mark their turf.
Last year, the city spent $7.1m to remove 28.2m square feet of graffiti from 641,000 locations, Paul Racs, who directs the office of community beautification, told the Los Angeles Times.
The ordinance won the council's unanimous approval, but was opposed by residents of the Arroyo Seco neighbourhood [council], who said the opt-out provision should be shortened to three days in every case.
The seven-day allowance "would give taggers a rotating free canvas, one week at a time, and encourage their return to do more damage each week thereafter," the neighbourhood council said in a statement. "Graffiti is best deterred by having a short life."
New York City, one of the birthplaces of graffiti in the 1970s, rid its subway system of graffiti in 1989 by taking graffiti-stained train cars out of service for cleaning within 24 hours, even when it meant pulling them off the tracks during rush hour. City officials said the change denied graffiti taggers the satisfaction of seeing their efforts travel throughout the city.
The next step, Councilman Tom LaBonge suggested, might be to extend the construction requirements to the government's own buildings and vehicles.
Even so, Racs said after the meeting, "We're still going to be taking care of light poles, curbs and stop signs."