An important aspect of the new Enhanced Graffiti Management program that the City of Ottawa has rolled out is the by-law enforcement of graffiti removal.
Over the last 3 years graffiti has been slowly accumulating on properties as tags and response tags have been stacking up. Some property owners have chosen to be diligent about removing graffiti from their properties promptly…while others have chosen to ignore it and let graffiti remain on their properties (in some cases for years). And year by year this slow accumulation of graffiti on properties that have not been maintained has allowed graffiti in Ottawa to reach a tipping point.
This, in conjunction with aggressive “bombers” who have been heavily tagging highly visible street-facing locations, has created a “bubble bursting” effect. Graffiti that once had been invisibly to everyone has abruptly come into the consciousness of many, as if almost having sprung up everywhere overnight.
By allowing graffiti to slowly accumulate to a critical mass point graffiti writers have run out of innocuous places to place graffiti and the hype and visibility of graffiti has increased and increased to the point that aggressive bombing now seems acceptable and common.
In order to bring graffiti back under control in Ottawa it is essential for concerned citizen to report graffiti to the City of Ottawa.
So How Do You Do That?
First step is to go out and identify what properties are graffitied and how. To do so, take down the street address of the property, and the location of graffiti on the property. Also take note of the type of graffiti (e.g., small tags, large tags, throws, pieces). And as you are checking out the property, take the time to look a little deeper. Is their graffiti on rooftop surfaces? Is there a back alley to the property? Try to take account of the full complexity of graffiti on the property so that you can pass this detailed information on to City By-Law officers and reduce the need for follow-up reports on the same property.
Next you’ll need to submit your graffiti report by calling the City of Ottawa’s Contact Centre at 311.
Once you’ve reached a 311 agent, identify that you are calling to make a graffiti report and that you will want to take the reference number of the report.
As the agent opens up the report they’ll ask you for the following information.
- Your name
- Your phone number
Note: This information will not be disclosed or provided to anyone. It is contact information that is required for each report in case the City of Ottawa needs to collect additional information on the graffiti you are reporting.
- What type of property the graffiti is it on (City property or Private property).
- Is the graffiti just vandalism, or hateful/racists/sexist?
- The street address of the property
- The location and type of graffiti on the property (i.e., location on the building, description of the graffiti).
In order to follow-up on the status of your graffiti report make sure to ask for the Reference Number for each report that you submit. If you are making multiple reports (for instance, of a few properties along a street), make sure to make individual reports for each property and take the Reference Number for each. If an agent is gathering multiple addresses into a single report, ask them to create individual reports for each address (the City actually requires that by-law reports be for a single property, so if the Call Centre agent is collecting multiple addresses in one report they are doing so mistakenly and will have to break them out into individual reports anyways).
And that’s it.
What Happens Next?
The City will send out a By-Law Enforcement agent to inspect the property based on your report…and if there is graffiti on the property a warning will be provided to the property owner. If the property owner chooses not to remove the graffiti, after a reasonable timeframe the City will send out a contracted graffiti removal agent to clean the property, and will charge the costs of removal to the property by adding it to the property tax of the building.
So if after a month you notice that the property you made a report on hasn’t improved at all, you can call back into the City Call Centre at 311 and using the Reference Number (or your name and address) ask for a status on the graffiti report you made.
Is This Really Necessary? It Sounds a Bit Mean Spirited!
Unfortunately taking control of the graffiti situation in Ottawa is necessary. Through apathy graffiti has flourished and proliferated throughout Ottawa. Property owners have turned a blind eye to graffiti on their properties…and chosen to ignore it; by doing so graffiti has been allowed to spread to adjacent properties and throughout whole neighbourhoods.
The only way to wake property owners from their slumber and to get them involved is to force them to take accountability for the graffiti on their property….and the cost of its removal. In doing so property owners will become fed up and angry, and will find ways to secure their properties (e.g., by limiting access to rooftops, by being vigilant of their property, by taking a more proactive role in patrolling their neighbourhoods and communities to make graffiti writers unwelcome)
Untold Victim: The Destruction of Art
Unfortunately graffiti isn’t always just vandalism. Some graffiti writers and street artists are incredible creative and skilled. They add colour and beauty to what can often be a drab and sterile cityscape. But due to the wanton vandalism of a handful of attention-seeking delinquents and copy cats, graffiti has been tainted in Ottawa. And vandalism has made it hard to see the art that peppers our city from the noise. Where once secluded “chill” spots were allowed to exist and add creative colour to our city…now untalented “bombers” have invaded those spots and spoiled these quiet oases for everyone. And sadly, street artists and creative graffiti writers will pay the price for the attention-seeking bomber that have stomped their chill spots. And most sadly of all, in the process many historical works of graffiti art and street art will end up buffed in the process.
So some advice to the Ottawa graffiti crowd (both legit and illegit), police your own community before you end up having your community policed by someone else.
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